Smart Buildings are coming: are construction professionals ready?

The future is smart! Buildings are increasingly becoming ‘smart’, with advanced technologies and systems designed to make them more efficient, safer and more sustainable. Installers will therefore have their hands full with automated lighting, climate control, security systems, energy management and smart devices. Smart buildings also offer new challenges and opportunities for other construction professionals. To lower the barriers to this theme, Buildwise has created a handy web page with a clear and concise introduction to smart buildings. Among other things, it focuses on better management of technical installations, offering new services to customers and using preventive maintenance to extend the life of buildings. You can get to know smart buildings in practice at the Data Connection Centre.

We are demanding more and more from our buildings. Thanks to new technologies, smart buildings can help to meet those expectations. What is key in this regard? Collecting data and providing insight, enabling automation and optimisation, creating opportunities for interaction with the user and putting that user at the centre. Smart buildings deliver their most significant added value during the operational phase of the building. There are considerable opportunities for installers and contractors, particularly in the areas of management, maintenance, safety and energy management. Nevertheless, it is still not easy for most construction professionals to keep up, let alone fully understand and exploit the possibilities. To help with this, Buildwise has compiled the key points of attention.

• Why intelligent buildings – and how do they make a difference?
• Better management of technical installations, with cost savings
• The development of new services for customers
• Extending the lifespan of buildings based on predictive maintenance
• Adopting an 8-step plan for creating smart, sustainable buildings

Installers and contractors who would like to discover what data capture can offer in practice can visit the new Data Connection Centre in Zaventem. This new experience centre demonstrates the possibilities of data, monitoring and IoT (the Internet of Things) for improving processes, materials and consumption, and to innovate more. Specifically, data from various applications and sources is collected and visualised in this ‘control room’. This includes tracking the energy consumption of a specific building and monitoring in real time of the load on a motorway bridge.

“A good understanding of intelligent buildings enables our construction professionals to respond more effectively to changing market demands and expectations, while simultaneously strengthening their own competitiveness and the relevance of their work in the sector,” says Arnaud Deneyer, Programme Lead Smart Applications & Energy Performance at Buildwise. “This is essential for ensuring their success and growth in an ever-evolving construction environment.”

The overview page on smart buildings is available here.