INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS
Engineers, architects and interior designers often use the phrase "intelligent building" to mean an
office building with telecommunications that allow the layout inside a building to be changed for a
client very quickly.
1980s: First Developments
Intelligent Buildings were first built in the 1980s, but failed to
popular in the building industry. One of the most successful
The Teleport, a development of the Port Authority of NY & NJ
City’s Staten Island, which opened in 1985. One of the first
use The Teleport was the Telehouse International Corporation,
the first ‘commercial collocation facility.’ A commercial
facility is an intelligent building where companies locate their
telephone switches in order to have access to both local and
networks at low cost.
become
projects was
on New York
companies to
which created
collocation
computers and
long-distance
1990s: Telecom Hotels
Despite this early success, by 1990, most developers had dismissed the Intelligent Building concept
as a marketing "gimmick." But less than a decade later, Intelligent Buildings had become the hottest
play in real estate, because of the unexpected success of the model pioneered by Telehouse in 1985.
Telehouses — also known as telecom hotels, Internet data centers or hosting centers — experienced
explosive growth beginning in 1998. Driving development was the huge growth of Internet traffic and
the inability of local telephone carriers to provide enough space at their central offices for all of the
equipment that competitive service providers wanted to install.
Controlling mechanical and electrical systems
When engineers say a building is intelligent, they often mean that computer programs coordinate and
control the temperature inside a building and provide power. The goal is usually to reduce the
operating cost of the building while making the environment inside the building suitable for the needs
fo the people working in it. Building Automation Systems (BAS) can be bought as complete units. A
basic BAS saves energy by widening temperature ranges and reducing lighting in unoccupied spaces. A
BAS also reduces costs for electricity by reducing the amount of electricity used in the building when
electricity is higher-priced.
Some intelligent buildings can do many things:
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Stop heat going outside the building through windows or walls
Know what the weather is going to be like, and make necessary changes to temperature control.
Change building systems to the individual's wants and needs (e.g. setting a room's temperature
and lighting levels automatically when a homeowner enters)
Detect and report faults in the mechanical and electrical systems, (e.g. report a fault in a lift
before the lift breaks down.
There are other ways in which a building can be able to do things by itself, i.e. be intelligent:
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Security (e.g. Checking people’s fingerprints as they enter the building)
Calculate rent based on how many days someone living in the building has been there
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Giving directions within the building
Customized lighting to meet different needs, or set moods.
Access to Telecomunications Facilities and Services
Developers of Intelligent Buildings differ in their approach to providing people who live in them with
access to telecommunications facilities and services. In some cases, developers make one or more
companies exclusive service providers [such as Etisalat] for the people living in the building, and these
service providers frequently create value-added services for the building, such as Web-based
"shopping malls" where tenants gain online access to local retailers and services.
Intelligent Buildings in the Intelligent City
In the Asia Pacific, the notion of an Intelligent Building is becoming inextricably linked to the
broader idea of the Intelligent City. In this regard, Intelligent Buildings are not just stand-alone
buildings, but interconnected structures within the city as a whole. The natural consequence of this is
the development of cities within cities; the ‘cities’ inside the cities are a tightly integrated network
of buildings that better enable the management and the best use of systems and resources.
Intelligent Buildings are becoming an economic and business necessity and not just something that is
"nice-to-have". Perhaps the most important thing about intelligent buildings is their ability to reduce
cost and use manpower in the best way.
A company called Eutech is working with several other companies, including Colliers International
Asset Management in Singapore, to develop solutions for the management of networks of multiple
buildings. This project uses software developed by Eutech . The software is located at a central
location and enables the remote management of multiple buildings over the Internet, wide area
network, or telephone network. Intelligent Buildings are becoming an intrinsic part of the cityscape in
the Asia Pacific. The opportunities for entrepreneurial companies to work in this field in this region
will be immense.
Wikipedia online encyclopedia: www.wikipedia.org
World Teleport Association http://www.worldteleport.org/
Smart homes: www.ricability.org.uk/. ../smarthomes.htm
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