Smart Building opens a new world

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Products and services are increasingly being produced from ecosystems and collaboration models. When you realize that the margin within the building industry is typically between 1 and 3%, you understand that this industry has to accelerate and deploy technology to deliver projects on time within budget and, using this method, to monitor and, where possible, improve its margin. In the area of technology uptake, in particular, until recently the building world was somewhat behind. Even though currently a considerable catch-up phase is underway. Parties from various backgrounds and perspectives are collaborating on this. All available creativity and technological possibilities are used and enriched within a larger whole.

The recently launched “Blikvangers Bouwers 2025” (eye catchers construct 2025) initiative focuses on this development. Blikvangers is a collaboration of project developers, construction companies, a large bank, a software producer for creating visualizations in building and management processes – and IBM. Collectively, we offer a vision of the building of the near future, each party from its own individual perspective (download the presentation Digital reinvention in Engineering, Construction and Operations). Not only do we show what such building will look like, but also how they will be designed and constructed. Finally, we show how we will use and maintain them. You can watch Blikvangers’ first film “The Future of Smart Design in 2025” here.

In part, Blikvangers is intended to promote discussion: what technologies are available, what technologies are or will be relevant and how quickly will they be further developed? Digital disruption is occurring everywhere. The time has come for the traditional players in the building industry to utilize their available data so as to deliver smarter, more efficient, cheaper projects. Thus withstand the constant pressure on the margin. Moreover, we can collectively determine what is necessary to effect an intended change. Embracing something new frequently goes hand in hand with a fundamental change in features and work methods, including when designing, constructing and utilizing a building. A number of these trends can already be seen; others have not yet reached the tipping point.

Available data

Take ‘evidence based designs’, in which experiences from buildings that have already been erected elsewhere in the world are included during the design. Based on data generated using this approach, parameters that have already worked well, as well as those that have been less successful, become apparent. Consider the use of areas, energy housekeeping, classification and utilized facilities – in effect, the total user experience. This information, which increasingly comes from sensors, can be applied in the next design. A large part of what we used to call creativity is then filled in by the computer. The designers then have a solid basis for beginning their work.

Another tendency is that buildings can increasingly be dynamically modified. Walls can be moved, the classification and size of rooms can be altered and equipment and whiteboards can be made available. There is also a shift from possession to use. Block chain can play a role here, for reserving and renting areas for the short term, for example. You enter and leave using a pass and the transactions are performed automatically. A third party is no longer needed to arrange all this.

You can do the same with sharing, reserving and loading cars. Gradually, a complete service provision is being created around smart buildings. Sharing spaces, collaborating, communicating, transport, energy usage – all this can be completely attuned to the needs and possibilities of the individual user. This also means that everything is more efficient. And people who deliver something, for example transporting people (carpooling) or delivering packages, are rewarded for this. One large ecosystem of users and services is created, and everything that you give and take is transparent.

Intelligent control

As IBM, we want to play a role in such new forms of collaboration. Not least because we can deliver the technology that makes all this possible. Think, for example, of our solutions involving the Internet of things (IoT), where data can be collected in the cloud and various bits of data can be linked to one another. This makes it possible for parties to profit from one another’s services by retrieving the desired data based on an agreed upon payment model. This also enables the manager to perform preventive maintenance. For example, because sensors in equipment issue an alert when a component needs to be replaced, elevators are intelligently controlled. They react to where people are currently situated and move in the building, or people can be directed to the right meeting area via a mobile app.

When developing these solutions, increasingly within IBM we are expressly employing design thinking, by virtue of which we take the end-users’ experience and perspective as the focal point within the design.

Smart design

The first smart buildings are currently being delivered; many more will follow in the coming years. The accent is currently on the design phase; this is beautifully illustrated in the first film released by the Blikvangers initiative.

However, the developments are not limited to the world of buildings and construction. We see a broader interaction occurring between companies, physical infrastructures, residential areas and public transport. Combined with the tendency that sustainability and use are more important than possession, in future people will continually be offered the best options for transport, work areas, eating and other services. A smart building can serve as the catalyst for all this. There are good reasons for the discussion that Blikvangers has initiated.