To describe which are the issues, principles and concepts of the Intelligent Building (IB), emphasizing the information technologies related issues and their contribution to the Intelligent Building concept, namely to the building automation systems. we need to focus on:
- Architectures for monitoring and control of buildings
- Integration of sub-systems
- Managing the building
- Describing possible solutions amenable to be used within residential and institutional buildings
Origins of the
Intelligent Building (IB) concept - Introduction
The Intelligent Building concept is much more than lighting and temperature control automation, as it is sometimes referred in the information technology (IT) literature.
It has to do with a global vision of the building, and associated businesses, which has to include different contributions, including owners, managers, architects, engineers and users.
To have a clear picture about the Intelligent Building concept,
it is necessary to have a general overview on the way buildings have
been used along time and which technologies have been used for their
exploitation.
During the last century, building technol
ogies have been evolving at a very strong pace. We can, roughly,
identify three evolution periods:
- Till 1900, buildings had a static structured; main materials
used to build was rocks, bricks and wood;
- Till 1945, cement was introduced; also, electric appliances
were improved and having electric machines inside buildings start to be
common;
- After 1945, while at residential buildings the reality had no big
shifts, for institutions and companies, the building has been seen as
something that can evolve according with the company needs.
Walls, roofs and pavements can be moved and change according with the company/institution goals; open spaces become common. The number of electric appliances and electronic systems, from automation to communications, has been increasing continuously.
Different control, monitoring and/or supervising strategies have been implemented, integrating more complexity and flexibility, directly associated with the improvements at the electronic devices level.
According to a study valid for the USA market during the nineties, building acquisition costs are the biggest cost for an enterprise. Following, we can find building maintenance costs, normally before salaries costs… In this sense, it is mandatory to adequately manage building infrastructures, their usage, their reconfigurability capabilities and their maintenance.
The referred aspects, complemented by the general society
transformation, led to the concept of intelligent building, able to
offer flexibility and reconfigurability capabilities, supported by a
set of evolving technologies.
This chapter emphasizes the views associated with the IT
engineering activities in intelligent buildings.
Related terminology
Several names can be found as synonyms for “intelligent building” when IT solutions are considered. Easily, we can find references to “smart buildings”, “domotics”, and “high-tech buildings”, among others. Maybe, “domotics” can be used as a synonym whenever the automation systems play a major role.
Roughly, we can characterize three phases associated with the
intelligent building concept:
- The first one, till middle of eighties, where the main emphasis
is on “automated buildings” and the intelligent building is a
collection of innovative technologies;
- The second one, till beginning of the nineties, where the main
emphasis is on “responsible buildings” and the intelligent building
concept can be characterised as a collection of technologies able to
respond to organisational change over time;
- Finally, in the third phase the emphasis is on the “effective building” concept, where the intelligent building can support business objectives, integrating adequate space, business and building management, and where technologies are seen as tools to support those goals.
Building management is mainly associated with building automation systems, while space management is mainly associated with facility management systems, and business management is supported by communication infrastructures.
Green Buildings
Recently, a new concept was proposed as a sort of extension to the intelligent building concept: it is the green building concept. It integrates motivations towards environment protection, trying to balance environmental impacts, from building phase till exploitation and usage.
Main features include:
- Healthy working places, ergonomically designed;
- Furniture well matched with the function, using adequate
materials;
- Better recycling processes;
- Lighting and ventilation taking more advantage of natural
sources and of available technologies;
- More rationale use for potable water;
- Lower environmental impact.