What is an intelligent building?

What is an intelligent building?

Can an intelligent building be defined? It is not necessarily a hi-tech, multistorey building; it may be a ‘motivational building’ or a ‘quality built environment’, or perhaps it is better described as a ‘sustainable building’. For the purpose of this discussion the term‘ intelligent building’ will be used and some possible definitions given.

A building which responds to the requirements of its occupants.

The implications of this statement are many and varied. Certainly a variety of views and explanations are possible, each correct in its own right and all incorporating aspects of other views.

The Intelligent Building Institute (IBI) adopted the following definition (GK Communications, 2001):

An intelligent building is one that provides a productive and cost effective environment through the optimization of its four basic elements: systems, structures, services and management and the interrelationship between them. The only characteristic that all intelligent buildings have in common is a structure designed to accommodate change in a convenient, cost effective manner.

By contrast, the European Intelligent Building Group (EIBG, 2001) states:

An intelligent building creates an environment that allows organizations to achieve their business objectives and maximizes the effectiveness of its occupants while at the same time allowing efficient management of resources with minimum life-time costs.

Both definitions point toward similar conclusions but their approach (the effective means to create an environmentally sensitive and productive centre) is different.

Stubbing (1988) limits his definition to ‘a building which totally controls its own environment’. The implication here is that there is an overriding technical mastery of the building.

Lush (1987) takes another perspective focusing on a multi-dimensional view of spatial efficiency, allowing for the inclusion of extrinsic aspects of the building (exterior spaces), and melding them with its intrinsic fabric, functionality, layout and its degree of responsiveness:

An intelligent building would include a situation where the properties of the fabric vary according to the internal and external climates to provide the most efficient and user friendly operation in both energy and aesthetic terms.