Smart Buildings

Smart Building Construction MUST Focus on Outcome NOT Output

Can we ever have truly Smart Buildings when the construction industry is so obsessed with just building more and more buildings? Architect and Thought Leader Paul Fletcher from Through collaborates with Memoori to argue that we need a root and branch overhaul of construction thinking. What we currently have is a construction industry that only understands Output; that is to say making and modifying buildings. Instead what we ALL need to focus on is people in buildings. What individuals & groups (familial and societal) need is Outcome (Service). The information needs required for a shift in focus to Outcome are totally different. Buildings generally accommodate many people, so information is more often than not generalised and non specific - BMS set points are a good example of this. Yet (as observed by Aldous Huxley) individual and collective happiness lies in the understanding of the needs of each individual - hence a fundamentally different information model. […]

Stay ahead of the pack

with the latest independent smart building research and thought leadership.

Have an account? Login

Subscribe Now for just $200 per year per user (just $17 USD per month) for Access to Quality Independent Smart Building Research & Analysis!

What Exactly Do you Get?

  • Access to Website Articles and Notes. Unlimited Access to the Library of over 1,700 Articles Spanning 10 Years.
  • 10% discount on ALL Memoori Research reports for Subscribers! So if you only buy ONE report you will get your subscription fee back!
  • Industry-leading Analysis Every Week, Direct to your Inbox.
  • AND Cancel at any time
Subscribe Now

Can we ever have truly Smart Buildings when the construction industry is so obsessed with just building more and more buildings? Architect and Thought Leader Paul Fletcher from Through collaborates with Memoori to argue that we need a root and branch overhaul of construction thinking.

construction

What we currently have is a construction industry that only understands Output; that is to say making and modifying buildings. Instead what we ALL need to focus on is people in buildings. What individuals & groups (familial and societal) need is Outcome (Service).

The information needs required for a shift in focus to Outcome are totally different. Buildings generally accommodate many people, so information is more often than not generalised and non specific - BMS set points are a good example of this.

Yet (as observed by Aldous Huxley) individual and collective happiness lies in the understanding of the needs of each individual - hence a fundamentally different information model.
construction1

If we go back to Nicholas Negroponte in "The Architecture Machine: Toward a More Human Environment" he stated that there will be a greater synergy between man and machine and that machine learning will open up "unanticipatable" changes in our understanding and use of the built environment leading to "a more human architecture".

Well that was 1970, today the "unanticiptable" is Big Data, Cloud Computing, IoT & Machine Learning. Big data is all about real behaviours not belief.

The construction industry as a whole is not evolving fast enough. Sadly Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a case in point. BIM is utterly irrelevant and entirely contrary to the data and information modelling needs necessary for a 21st century built environment, supporting a thriving society. At best it is CAD with bells on that makes an inappropriate process easier.

So far Nest, Apple and others are just scratching at the edges of Smart Buildings. But soon we'll see a new type of building equipment. This will be embedded in furniture, wireless, low power, individual and wearable.

Follow Paul on Twitter https://twitter.com/thrutl and watch his presentation "To BIM or Not To BIM" here.

Most Popular Articles

Net Zero Buildings Timber IHS
Energy

Net Zero Buildings Explored: International House Sydney, Australia

As the first timber structure of its scale in Australia, International House Sydney (IHS) occupies an important position in the nation’s architectural history. Completed in mid-2017, IHS gained a 6 Star Green Star for office design and achieved As Built (v3) rating, alongside many other awards for design, operation, and especially embodied carbon. The six-story […]

Subscribe to the Newsletter & get all our Articles & Research Delivered Straight to your Inbox.

Please enter a valid email

Please enter your name

Please enter company name

By signing up you agree to our privacy policy