101206 intelligent buildings
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This document discusses the concept of intelligent buildings, its principles and the benefits that it can bring to organisations who adopt this philosophy within their real estate. Whilst most of its aspects can be replicated in different building types and industries, care should be taken of the context and purpose of the building. After all, although the purpose of buildings is the same regardless of industry – to enhance occupiers output – the actual output differs per industry and, therefore, an intelligent building will mean something differently for an educational establishment compared to an office block. Within this document I focus on office buildings because in many respects they are one of the most complex and fast changing environments that exist currently, but also because intelligent buildings is becoming a prime discussion point either because of legislation (e.g. energy savings through the Carbon Reduction Commitment and Part L) or through increasing awareness of the impact that built assets have on the bottomline. Care should be taken that the term “intelligence” should not only apply to the intelligence of the buildings themselves through systems and ICT, but also in how far they are intelligently designed, built, run and maintained.
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101206 intelligent buildings
- 1. INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS MANAGE. MONITOR. MAXIMISE. MITIGATE. MARTIJNMOERBEEK
- 2. THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY KNOWLEDGE IS POWER... INFORMATION AND SKILLS ACQUIRED THROUGH EXPERIENCE OR EDUCATION (a work environment that is conducive to learning and development) THE SUM OF WHAT IS KNOWN (knowledge sharing and collaboration promoted through the workplace) AWARENESS OR FAMILIARITY GAINED BY EXPERIENCE OF A FACT OR SITUATION (spaces that encourage interaction and creation of social networks) 2 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010)
- 3. WORK:PLACE DISCONNECT INEFFICIENCIES IN THE WORKPLACE... 58% 30% 24% 40% DESIGN & CHURN & PRODUCTIVITY & ENERGY & NEEDS CHANGES INEFFICIENCY SUSTAINABILITY 58% of office workers do A churn rate of 30% due to 24% of staff satisfaction is Energy is the largest not believe that their organisational change is influenced by comfort, manageable cost of many office has been designed typical and constitutes one surroundings, systems, companies with buildings to support their company’s of the highest operating environment and layout, accounting for 40 percent business nor that it is costs for most companies, with £134bn per annum of the world’s energy use conducive to their own costing the country around in lost productivity due to with the resulting carbon job function and activities. £2bn per annum. bad office design. emissions. 3 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010) (Gensler, 2005; Brittain, 2005; CABE, 2005; WBCSD, 2009)
- 4. GENIUS LOCI THE SPIRIT OF A PLACE... FORM + NEEDS = FUNCTION GEOMETRY RELATIONS MEANING STRUCTURE INTERACTIONS VALUE PHYSICAL USAGE ATMOSPHERE EFFICIENCY EFFECTIVENESS EXPRESSION 4 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010)
- 5. WORK TRENDS LIBERATING THE WORKFORCE... >> >> TRIM FAT NETWORKS SPACE & TIME VALUE FOR MONEY DISORGANISATION ANY PLACE & TIME WHOLE LIFE CYCLE COLLABORATION WORK < > LIFE SPACE REDUCTION WORK MODES WORK PRACTICES EFFICIENCY EFFECTIVENESS EXPRESSION 5 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010)
- 6. FOCUS AREAS THE THREE KEY DRIVERS FOR WORKPLACES... EFFECTIVENESES INCREASE KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER If knowledge exchange becomes critical, certain spatial layouts, social facilities and designed networks can support faster exchange of information up and down the development chain. EXPRESSION ENHANCE CORPORATE BRANDING If the company wants to promote its corporate image as dynamic and innovative and increase staff attraction and retention rates, a dynamic and innovative headquarters building helps. EFFECTIVENESS EFFICIENCY INTENSIFY SPACE UTILISATION If there is a need to make economies to improve business efficiency, design strategies that increase space utilisation and density of occupation can help to trim property costs. EFFICIENCY 6 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010) (based on DEGW, 2005)
- 7. THE WORKPLACE PARADIGM THE FOUR PILLARS OF GOOD WORKPLACES... BUILDING PHYSICS BUILDING INTELLIGENCE Space and climate complement The climate is monitored and each other by utilising passive managed by building systems design principles as that amend environmental determined by careful conditions on the basis of building physics real-time occupation engineering. densities. INFRASTRUCTURE ADAPTABILITY Systems assist with space utilisation and management and are designed and installed in a manner that allows for rapid reconfiguration if organisational needs change. 7 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010)
- 8. SPACE GRADATIONS OF SPACE UTILISATION... full non-territorial environment with breaking link between staff working in workstation and settings most addition of supporting individual suitable to activity communal spaces: open plan collaborate cellular space concentrate contemplate stage 1 ● stage 2 ● stage 3 ● stage 4 ● stage 5 ● impact WORKPLACE WORKPLACE WORKPLACE WORKPLACE EFFICIENCY EFFECTIVENESS EFFICIENCY MAXIMISATION space increase density provide more building supports space designed and and churn with appropriate more workers than supplied around standard office environments to available needs of business furniture support work workstations processes systems standardised to supports mobility, supports mobility balances specialist allow staff to including internal inside and outside and generic ict on relocate easily telephone systems the offices department basis climate optimised, but ambient conditions greater individual highly flexible and generalised to defined by controllability of the future-proofed to the average requirements of task workplace cater for rapid human being performed environment reconfiguration 8 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010) (based on DEGW, 2005)8
- 9. CLIMATE GRADATIONS OF CONTEXTUAL CONTROL... OCCUPANT CONTROL A greater degree of control over one’s environment increases motivation and thereby overall performance TASK & TEAM PERFORMANCE Complement the general climate with localised additions suitable to individual or team activities BUILDING REGULATIONS Optimise the base level in such a way that it results in the minimum amount of disruptions and distractions to staff. 9 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010) (based on Vischer, 2007)
- 10. SYSTEMS GRADATIONS OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION... BUILDING SYSTEMS ICT SYSTEMS BUSINESS SYSTEMS BMS, CCTV, Voice, Data, ERP, MRP, Access Control, Video, Internet, CRM, SAP, Lighting Control, E-Mail, IP-Based Oracle, SAGE, Intruder, Fire Applications Coins INTEGRATED INTEGRATED INTEGRATED BUILDING ICT ICT BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT PROCESSES “building performance” through systems integration “business performance” through enterprise integration 10 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010)
- 11. INTEGRATION OPPORTUNITIES ASSETS, HARDWARE & SOFTWARE... ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION SYSTEMS INTEGRATION INTEGRATED BUILDING MANAGEMENT 11 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010)
- 12. LIFECYCLE PHILOSOPHY IMPACTING CAPEX AND OPEX... MITIGATE RISKS Challenge conventional thinking to 4 MANAGE ASSETS Proactively and reactively manage add value whilst reducing risks in all aspects of the property, its operations, health & safety, assets, its operations and how welfare and sustainability users interface with the property. prerequisite: guidance 1 prerequisite: policies MAXIMISE PERFORMANCE Systematically enhancing the whole 3 MONITOR BEHAVIOUR Capturing of data relating to how life performance of the property, as the property ‘feels’, what it ‘sees’, well as positively impacting on the what it ‘thinks’ and how behaviours behaviour of its occupants and users. of its users change over time. prerequisite: focus 2 prerequisite: knowledge 12 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010)
- 13. MANAGE ASSETS HUMAN OR SYSTEMS DRIVEN... SOFT POLICY HARD POLICY Building management is driven by Building management is driven by humans, their behaviours and their automated systems that manage, interaction with the building assets dictate and optimise building assets through manual interventions based and the internal environment with on their individual requirements. some level of direct user input. HUMAN SYSTEMS INTERVENTION INTERVENTION Simple Optimised Individual Generalised Fallible Fallible SUPPORT SYSTEMS On-site engineers Management policies One point-of-contact One single help-desk Real-time management information 13 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010)
- 14. MONITOR BEHAVIOUR INTEGRATING NECESSARY SYSTEMS... TIER FOUR Peer-to-peer with common communication protocol TIER THREE Connected through a higher level LAN protocol TIER TWO Serial-linked with common supervisory computer TIER ONE Separate building and communications functions 14 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010) (based on McHale, 1989)
- 15. MAXIMISE BENEFITS DETERMINING THE HIGH IMPACT AREAS... KEY BENEFITS PROFIT & OPPORTUNITY To be unlocked through Value to owner/ Integration, information and end-user and other intelligence in buildings stakeholders PRIME DRIVERS Triple bottom line aligned with sustainable development 15 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010) (based on I&I Proplan, 2004)
- 16. MITIGATE RISK INHERENT BUILDING AND BUSINESS RISKS... RISK AREAS RISK AREAS Health Political Safety Economic Fire Social Life Technological Security Legal Failure Environmental Negligence Downtime BUSINESS CONTINUITY FUTURE PROOFING Potential loss of income BUILDING Potential loss of opportunity 16 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010)
- 17. INTELLIGENT BENEFITS BALANCING NEEDS VERSUS OUTCOMES... EXPRESSION Any place, any time Branding Adaptability Sustainability EFFICIENCY Floorspace CAPEX vs OPEX Space utilisation Risk EFFECTIVENESS Productivity Collaboration Satisfaction Welfare 17 / Intelligent Buildings / © Martijn Moerbeek (2010)
- 18. Contact Martijn Moerbeek 10 Hartington Road Buxton Derbyshire SK17 6JW United Kingdom t: +44 (0)1298 747 22 e: martijn.moerbeek@gmail.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
- When one looks at the history of work, and how offices have developed with them, one can generally distinguish three types of office: the Taylorist office as the consequence of the 19th century invention of ‘Scientific Management’, the Social Democratic office as the consequence of post-second World War and economic reconstruction and the Networked Office made possible by robust, reliable and ubiquitous 21st century information technology.The latter one is aimed to satisfy the needs of the knowledge economy. Much has been written about this economy, or information revolution and, for example, Drucker (1993) argues that knowledge has become the resource, rather than a resource, and it is this that makes post-capitalist society unique. Indeed, the competitiveness of most companies in the western world these days is derived from the knowledge they posses. This new way of working not only places much stronger emphasis on innovation, information and the importance of knowledge, it also requires a new breed of worker who is significantly different from “white collar” workers of the past.Such cognitive workers are expected to be more functionally and cognitively fluid and able to work across many kinds of tasks and situations. The broader span of work, brought about by changes in organizational structure, also creates new demands, including the increased complexity of work, continuous competency development and different ways of thinking. Now in the new organisational era knowledge work is the dominant form of work and the act of organising has become more relevant than the term ‘organisation’, as it is manifest in the organisation’s new emphasis on group level processes, social networks and electronically mediated communication.
- So if knowledge is power, why are offices then still designed with transactional and processes driven industries in mind? One explanation is that, in practice, the goals of most corporate property teams boil down to three things: reducing the cost of real estate as much as possible, helping the business use real estate to achieve as much profit in the business as possible, and reducing any possible risks to the company’s reputation. What this does not do, however, is take into account the human aspects and the impact that buildings have on people.Nevertheless, if one considers that over the typical 20-year life of a building 85% of all costs associated to this building are related to people (i.e. mostly salaries) then it becomes apparent that it is a much higher cost to employ people than it is to maintain and operate a building, hence spending money on improving the work environment is the most cost effective way of improving productivity because a small percentage increase in productivity of 0.1% to 2% can have dramatic effects on the profitability of the company.In spite of this, this is not generally how buildings are designed, run and maintained and it is then no surprise that they feel to meet their prime objectives: increasing the output of its occupants. In fact, the architects Gensler (2005) estimate that Inefficient buildings cost British business £135bn per annum and a better designed workplace could improve productivity by 19%. Furthermore, offices are neither designed with the fast-changing environments in mind that we encounter day-in-day-out and in banking, for example, churn rates of around 50% are considered to be normal, yet the office does not cater for easy reconfiguration.Over and above this, whilst buildings are accountable for around 40% of the total energy usage in the world, it is estimated that corporate property is responsible for some 20% of global CO2 emissions (mainly through energy use), whilst being a major source of waste generation and a huge consumer of water resources. Obviously, in this day and age of increasing pressure on the limited resources that our planet has this is something that cannot continue.
- As it currently stands, most of the office industry is focussed on providing a space. What I mean with this is a 3-dimensional space that is purely focussed on the form through architectural design with a notion of creating efficiencies through concepts such as desks per square metre or office workers per square metres. However, it is exactly this mentality that gives rise to poor office design as it fails to take into account the human needs. Architects are often accused of placing form over function, but within this industry that accusation largely holds true. However, they are not the only ones who are at fault. In spite of a growing need for, and exposure to, workspace design decision making, managers still tend to see “space” as peripheral to their core activities and, indeed, to the mission of their companies. The growing knowledge about environmental effects on building occupants’ productivity and morale is creating a need to integrate workspace considerations into core business decision making.Humans are social creatures, and in order to be effective they need to have relations and interactions with others, as well have use the space in a way that it is intended to do so. Only by doing so can one create a “place”, an area that has meaning and value to it and provides a certain atmosphere in which it expresses the values of those that occupy it. What needs to be recognised in the building design process is that there are three key attributes which interact. The type of building, the facilities provided for environment and utilities, and the use of the building are three inter-related facets. In practice these issues are often considered separately but their interaction is ignored. In other words form, function and human needs are the foundation for deriving architecture which not only contributes to the well-being of the individuals occupying the building but also makes a significant impact on the business organisation.Indeed, for most organisms, being in “the right place” is an important determinant of survival and wellbeing. There is no reason why this should be different for humans. In building terms, a “right” environment should not only be free of distractions, hazards and discomforts, it should also contain amenities that promote positive functioning and well-being. This is referred to as “genius loci”, or the spirit of the place.
- Nevertheless, most managers struggle to understand architects drawing and translate this into a vision of how it would look like in practice, let alone have a meaningful discussion about what impact a building would have on their staff. Add to this the earlier discussed traditional mindset of many corporate property teams and it becomes apparent why most companies cannot move beyond the first stage and, as a result, the prevailing trend in the office market is to “trim fat” by reducing the amount of space per person or desk, taking into account OPEX rather than just CAPEX and to reduce costs where possible. Once again, their mentality is only about ‘efficiency’ or short-term cost savings.Nevertheless, there is a second trend that companies can pursue: flex. In this they aim to create social networks with their space, and this goes way beyond just adjacencies (e.g. Placing people that work together next to each other), as it is about creating different spaces for the four different work mode that people use in their work hours, creating spaces that encourage and force collaboration and in reality disorganising the company into its constituent parts and letting them coalescence together again through space. Finally, as a third trend companies can go beyond this and target fluidity, with which we mean that space and time no longer matter. The Mon-Fri 9-5 mentality is long gone as people nowadays work wherever they want, whenever they want. Whether this is at the office on a Monday at 10pm, or in a Starbucks at midnight on a Saturday does not and should not matter. In doing so, one frees people up from the treadmill and allows them to balance work and life however they see fit, it allows them to express themselves and take control of their lives again. For the first time since the beginning of scheduled time and routinised labour with Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations in 1776, technology allows work to become disassociated from space and time.Indeed, increasingly people have the choice of which organisation they work for and how they live their lives. More and more people are trying to find a balance between their home life and their work life, so spending their time fruitfully nearer the people and places they would like to be near, may make sense. The concepts of “Flex” and “Fluid” have proven major impacts or people productivity, happiness, motivation, health and other benefits.
- As I mentioned at the beginning, the context of a building determines what it should become and this is very much industry dependant. Nevertheless, even within the office industry a one-size-fits-all approach will not work as a well designed office will mean different things to different organisations depending on their business, culture and methods of working. One company may have a need for distraction-free work for the majority of its workforce for the majority of the working day whereas another might thrive on collaboration, teamwork and knowledge sharing. This simple but powerful message is crucial – the notion of a well-designed office environment is highly subjective and relative to the organisation it is housing.What is clear is that a workplace solution that achieves efficiency and effectiveness (or productivity) objectives in parallel and without compromise to either is not just a desirable outcome of property asset management planning, it is a must. The danger is that drives for efficiency will throw up what appear to be and indeed are in reality very tangible short term occupancy cost savings – but at a very high cost to the sustainability of the workforce. Efficiency relates to making economic use of real estate and driving down occupancy costs (getting the most from the money), effectiveness is concerned with using space to support the way that people work, improving output and quality (getting the most from the people), whilst expression allows the communication of messages both to the inhabitants of the building and to those who visit it, to influence the way they think about the organisation (getting the most from the brand).Efficiency and effectiveness are not necessarily inconsistent objectives. Planning for one must, however, be done with full regard to potential unintended consequences such that all consequences become planned and intended and of course desirable. In my experience, the organisations who achieve most value are those that realise that their built assets are not just bricks and mortar, but also an opportunity for generating improved business efficiency. The key is in understanding the direct contribution the built assets make to the business revenues and the effective delivery of services.
- In order to create the environment that needs the specific needs of a particular client, my research has informed me that four criteria matter: space, climate, systems and environment. In my view, workplace design must not be regarded as a discreet activity but a link in an integrated process that starts with understanding what people need of their workplace to do business, and ends with an understanding of how the design has worked in practice – there must also be a feedback loop to re-engineer aspects of the design to fit the changing needs of people and the business over time.But similar to this, linkages need to be made between the various aspects of a good design. From a stand-alone perspective, climate relates to factors such as the amount of day lighting, humidity levels, noise levels, temperatures, and the likes, sSystems includes the building services, but also any ICT systems that accompany this, space has to do with lay-out, flow paths, adjacencies and other space design principles and, finally, the environment is related to the impact that the building has on the impact through embedded energy, but also throughout the construction and its life.Now, where the industry goes wrong is that most of these principles are approached from different angles by different parties. However, the need to be joined up as they overlap and impact on one another. For example, if one would wish to increase the density in a space, this will impact on the climate as the temperature and noise levels would go up (e.g. climate), and in order to remedy this one would have to adjust the building services and probably increase them (e.g. systems), however, this will have an adverse impact on the CO2 emissions and energy usage if not done correctly (e.g. environment). Therefore, these elements need to be interlinked through three design principles: building physics, building intelligence and infrastructure adaptability.
- If we go back in time, organisations used to have almost totally cellular offices, then they moved to a one size fits all open plan. Within such environments, many organisations suffer from the apparent paradox of inadequate office space but low building utilisation. This is largely because workspace design typically assumes 100% occupancy rather than reflecting actual working practices. Now we are seeing organisations moving from open plan to a more fluid approach to the work environment in which people work where it is appropriate to them and their companies. As a first step, many companies are introducing additional areas for different ways of knowledge working that are not always catered for in the average open plan office. In particular, the need for three alternative types of space for knowledge work was identified: spaces to collaborate, spaces to concentrate and spaces to contemplate.As discussed, increasingly work comprises more cognitive and interactive styles than in the past, and in so doing challenges the capability of any one workplace setting dedicated to an individual worker to satisfactorily address all of his/her varied needs. Added to which, work activities are commonly of intermittent frequency and erratic durations. These irregular and transient aspects of work are also major contributors to poor utilisation of workplaces. It is not uncommon for surveys to reveal utilisation levels of 40% or lower. In other words, routinely 60% or more of a business’s workplaces could be vacant at any time.It is then no wonder that more and more organisations take an interest in the “fluid” approach. With such approaches we can often see buildings being able to accommodate 20%-30% more staff. Indeed, it is anticipated that it will become increasingly difficult for organisations to be able to sustain their profitability using current models of organisation and work. Organisations are expected to progressively re-design themselves exploiting the new relationships between work, time and place and their need for strategic flexibility. In order to achieve sustainable profitability companies will adopt new styles of working using their buildings as hubs, a base from which larger communities of workers are able to work in a variety of settings to suit themselves, their organisations and their families. There will not be one way, there will be many. There will be a variety. There will be choices.
- Environmental comfort, or climate, involves three related categories that form a hierarchy and serve to set priorities on workspace change. All three need to be considered if comfort is to be understood in context. At the base of the triangle is the threshold between space that is too uncomfortable to allow work to be performed, and space that is minimally physically comfortable. In this instance, people will either fight or flight their environment, both leading to reduced productivity, motivation and welfare. To ensure positive effects on individual and team performance, users’ physical comfort must be assured and the negative impacts (e.g., unsafe, health-threatening conditions) must be avoided. This basic level of building habitability is called “building convenience.” Functional comfort, the second level of workplace performance, addresses how effective the workspace is in helping users perform their tasks and focuses on ways of ensuring that the workspace is both a support and a tool to help get work done. It speaks to the need to invest in good workspace design and management in order to add value to the work being performed. In terms of the stress/arousal and motivational models, studies have shown that inappropriate lighting, ventilation, and noise levels are environmental stressors that have negative effects on worker morale and productivity, as well as health.At the top of the pyramid is psychological comfort, a concept that is only beginning to be measured in the office environment.43 Psychological comfort links psychosocial aspects with the environmental design and management of workspace through territoriality, privacy, and control. The primary component of psychological comfort is sense of territory, both individual territory (office, workstation, micro-workspace) and group territory (team, group, midrange workspace), affecting both employee stress levels and motivation.The reality is that too few organisations get beyond the first two of three levels of the hierarchy. To do otherwise management must regard its prime asset, the workforce, as a collection of individuals with a unique set of needs and motivations. ‘low level’ needs associated with the working environment are unlikely to motivate but can create dissatisfaction.
- We are moving in a direction in which the information technologies associated with work processes are almost totally de-coupled from the energy and architectural technologies and systems. Not only is the workplace of the future going to demand more flexibility and rapid reconfiguration of space, it is also increasingly moving toward a radically different use of facilities. In addition, in the interest of meeting shareholder and organizational concerns for ever increasing profit margins, the workstation footprint is shrinking rapidly.Vastly increased access to information has made work both easier and more difficult. The ease comes from ability to rapidly locate and download information from diverse web sites. The difficulty comes with the need to consume and make sense of new information in a timely fashion. Information overload, coupled with time pressures and increased work complexity, lead to what psychologists call "cognitive overload syndrome (COS)." Symptoms of COS include stress, inability to concentrate, multitasking, task switching, and a tendency to focus on what is easy to do quickly rather than what is important.In such an environment, access to information alone is not enough, it also needs to be the right information at the right time. What is more, this mantra not only applies to the inhabitants of the buildings, but also to those who manage and run it. Historically, however, this required information resides in different siloes. Business information has been integrated and managed by ERP systems for the last three decades, whilst communication has become more and more integrated with the advent of the internet in the early 1990’s. Building systems, however, have lagged behind and only recently have started to become integrated till some extent, although the process so far has been fraught with hazards and issues due to the complexity and the multiplicity of protocols. Nevertheless, integration between building, ICT and business systems is exactly what is required if ones wishes to increase the performance of the occupants of a building, the building itself and the business that inhabits it.
- In line with this philosophy, there are then three main methods of integrating systems within a building and, indeed, within a business. As a first step, one could take a long hard look at the systems that reside within a building and which make it “breathe”, “see” and “feel”. These include, but are not limited to, systems such as fire, intruder, lighting, access control, etceteras. Traditionally, these are installed separately and often by separate contractors. To make matters worse, they also tend to have their own network system, with their own supervisory computer and more often than not have their own bespoke protocol, which also tends to be closed. As a result, integration between them is difficult and was historically done through a Building Management Systems (BMS), which had to be installed and hard-coded by specialist contractors. It is then no wonder that most buildings are run very inefficiently, simply because data does not exist or because it can simply be analysed. However, there are no middleware platforms available such as Tridium or Mediator which normalise the various languages that the building systems speak, but also allow for advanced data analytics and cause-and-effect actions between the systems. What is more, since these systems already operate on the basis of the IP protocol, connections can be made through a converged IP infrastructure with IP enabled systems such as telephone handsets or computers. This, consequently, opens up a whole new world of possibilities for building performance as now all hardware based systems in a building are connected and can speak to each other, allowing better asset tracking, the integration of software and a reduction in energy usage through better building optimisation.As a third step, one could then take these systems and connect them into ERP-based and similar software packages, thereby truly linking the organisation and the building together. For example, it then allows scenarios whereby if one books a holiday via the business software, it would inform the room-booking system that the office that is allocated to that person is available for meetings, turn down all services within that space down for the booked holiday period (unless some conversely books the space via the room-booking system), whilst at the same time disabling the access pass for that person, rerouting the telephone to a secretary and releasing his/her car parking space to the general public.
- Healthy buildings tend to increase productivity and save energy but require good facilities management and it is, therefore, imperative that a clear philosophy is taken to the management of the premises. On an annual basis, only 8% of total costs are directly attributed to the workspace, compared to 85% associated with people costs. These figures show that the greatest opportunity for workplace gains is in improving the performance of the people in the space, not cutting the cost of the workplace. This makes a compelling argument for lifecycle cost analyses that include the effects of workspace on the building population when determining the cost benefit of workspace elements. If the cost of providing important workspace attributes can be shown to provide even a modest increase in productivity, they can be more easily justified. Conversely, a short-sighted approach of cutting the first cost by providing the wrong kind of space, inadequate space, or installing systems, furniture, and technology that only meet minimum standards and thus hamper work performance, can have disastrous long-term effects.In order to make such informed decisions, data needs to be transposed into information, which can then be taken by automated analytics or skilled people who consequently use this information to create knowledge, and thus make appropriate decisions. The simple mantra of “Manage, Monitor, Maximise and Mitigate” does wonders in this instance, but each stage of the virtuous cycle has a number of prerequisites. The concept also represents an adaptable approach that respects the fact that the function and circumstances of built services change faster than the building itself. This is in full contrast to the traditional building paradigm and current practice, which are based on a static approach to the performance of buildings. The “living building” concept enables all parties involved in the delivery and use of buildings to deal adequately with changing technology, changing regulations and changing demands during construction projects and throughout the entire life cycle of buildings.
- As a first step in designing a management regime for any building, a long hard look should be taken at what makes the organisation tick, how its culture impacts on behaviour, what its key business drivers are, what its people expect from their work environment and what type of image they wish to portray as a business to the outside world. As stated before, the context of the building has a large impact on its design.The major choice that needs to be made is between the level of automation (i.e. hard policy) and human intervention (i.e. soft policy). With the latter the human occupants of the building will have to take a large share of responsibility for running the building and adjusting it to their specific needs, which may mean performing simple tasks as manually opening windows or more complex interventions such as optimising the internal climate of the premises. On the other side of the spectrum, with hard policy the systems are programmed in such a way that they respond to changing circumstances and subsequently change the behaviour and settings of the building in an appropriate manner.At one University I worked with I advocated a strong emphasis on human interventions as one of the purposes of their building was to educate their students on how buildings impact on the environment and for example, manually opening the window and seeing the impact that this has on the energy consumption meter in the reception would become part of their curriculum. I have also worked with a developer who wished to automate as much as he could, as it would appeal to the corporate clientele he was aiming for with is redevelopment.Clearly, some organisations lean more towards one side, although in reality a combination of both philosophies tends to yield the optimum solution as some systems are more appropriate to automate. No matter what solution is settled on, they will have to be underpinned by a raft of support systems.
- Once it has been decided upon which systems will have to be automated, and which can be left to manual control, a design policy will have to be created that actually integrates these systems and allows data analytics, cause-and-effect actions and optimisation of the systems.The current traditional approach at building design stage is to break these systems down into separate autonomous systems. These are subsequently dissected into individual work packages within the project. Typically these systems will have their own cabling infrastructures, project teams, and implementation schedule within the project programme. Each of these duplications adds a cost to the bottom line of the overall project budget. This approach requires a significant level of coordination with other package teams and the overall design team. Inherently this leads to substantial amounts of information being passed around between various members of various teams so coordination and implementation can be very difficult to manage.On the other hand, the integrated approach utilises readily available IP based system components to deliver a modular non-proprietary open system. The adoption of the integrated approach enables all key building services to operate under one integrated network saving substantial amounts in capital expenditure and operational costs. This approach utilises a common structured cabling system to underpin all services on the ICT network in an open IP-based scenario and, therefore, requires only one design specification, one project manager and one major electronic control and monitoring system. What is more, it has been estimated that this integrated approach could therefore lead to installation savings of up to 24% and life cycle savings of up to 36%. Indeed, now that the systems are truly integrated, the scene is set for realising these benefits.
- Needless to say, optimising the building for the sake of optimising it may be a nice exercise, the question needs to be raised, however, whether it is done in the right fashion. For example, one could expedite a lot of time, energy and money at improving the air-conditioning by 10%, whilst it may have not been a significant problem to begin with and the money could have been better spend on improving the lifts, which the occupants find to be poorly performing.As a first step, one should clearly understand what the prime drivers are of an organisation. Is it business that competes on cost or is under financial pressure, and thus the ‘economic’ criteria will be the overriding factor in their lives, or is a supermarket chain that is under increasing pressure to be a good corporate citizen with regards to their impact on the environment and, therefore, they wish to be seen to be as green as possible. The triple-bottom line is a good and simple model in defining where the initial priorities should be. From here on, one can determine what the key benefits should be. Going back to our example of a supermarket chain, do they see being as green as possible as a threat/risk for fear of losing market share to more environmentally friendly competitors, or do they see it as a way of improving their bottom line by reducing their energy usage? Again, each answer may yield a different area of focus for optimising the systems.Finally, once it has been clearly defined where the focus should be, the other side of the pyramid provides a mechanism to cascade this benefit down and thus determine who walks away with the profit that the opportunity generates. For example, one should not aim to improve the energy usage of the lighting system if this is not something that the client is not interested in, but one should certainly not consider doing so if the outsourced facilities manager is the one that walks away with all efficiency savings rather than the actual building occupier.
- As a last step in the lifecycle philosophy, on the basis of the data derived from the systems, risk can be managed. In general, risk falls into two categories: it either impacts on business continuity because some system fails and thus leads to a loss of income, or it results in loss of opportunity because the building, its systems or the organisation are not in prime position to take advantage of changes in the external environment. Both should be handled carefully.
- What all of the aspects above point to, is the need for workplaces to be designed and managed consciously to support people in their work activities. This means providing people with a mix of environments and services geared to enabling them to give their best performance every day without wasting emotion and energy on overcoming work:place mismatch.What is clear is that office of the future takes different forms, and differentiates itself from other workplace offerings by providing identity and superior process support for critical business processes. Instead of trying to be everything for everyone, such a office is a context-specific, dynamic, living entity that transcends the physical boundaries of the office and offers fluid interaction possibilities among on-site and off-site knowledge works alike. As a result, the office will evolve into an arena that combines high-performance collaboration solutions, social interaction zones and managed spaces for inspiration, creativity and reflection. Workplace agility is emerging as an important priority for the providers of workplace services and infrastructure. An agile workplace is one that is constantly transforming, adjusting and responding to organisational learning, change and uncertainty by continuously improving and the infrastructure that enables it.An intelligent building is at the heart of this as it provides a workplace infrastructure that empowers employees through self-regulation, engages employees through collaboration and communication, promotes a strong environmental ethic and sustains organisational agility, all of which are enabled through the adoption and implementation of new technology platforms.