Creating a better world through sustainable architecture

Xavier Mongin

October 24, 2024

Smart buildings use IoT, OT and IT to minimize environmental impact and make our lives more convenient and pleasant.

According to a UN Environment Programme study, the construction industry is responsible for 37% of global emissions. If we want to change things for the better, we need to take steps now to radically reduce our carbon footprint.

Smart buildings use Internet of Things (IoT), operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) to make more efficient and economical use of resources and minimize environmental impact. The services these buildings provide are adjustable, based on occupancy, to avoid wasting energy on lighting, heating and air conditioning.

The need to go beyond “smart”

Today, this real-time response to current conditions in a smart building relies on Building Management Systems (BMS), which aggregate data from systems into OT dashboards. But the intelligent buildings enabled by the merger of OT and IT rely on a more sophisticated platform and seamless interoperability with various sub-systems. This is defined as a Building Operating System (BOS). Currently, we are in a digital evolution phase where experts and vendors are discussing the requirements and capabilities of BOS — but this development will herald an important shift from smart buildings to regenerative buildings.

The emergence of intelligent buildings

Targets in the near future have been set to not only prevent the effects of climate change and preserve the planet, but also to reverse current trends and restore the environment. This is the key difference that intelligent buildings will bring.

Intelligent buildings are adaptive and can improve the ecosystem, enhancing biodiversity and producing renewable energy. Where smart buildings work to preserve energy, water, etc., regenerative buildings go a step further to actually replenish them. These capabilities require an advanced range of technologies aggregated by the BOS.

• By merging OT and IT into one, converged system, intelligent buildings will be able to seamlessly and wirelessly transfer information gathered from OT processes to their digital IT networks. Systems, including inputs from sensors and other measurement devices can then be monitored in a unified way. This will streamline operations and make the building more able to adapt to user needs, maximizing resource efficiency.
• With biomimicry, the intelligent building applies nature’s systems, forms and processes to complex human problems.  This is a design process that increases a building’s sustainability and also contributes to the enjoyment and wellbeing of the people that work, live or play there – not to mention the overall aesthetics.
• Swarm intelligence is a behavior model taken from what can be observed in a swarm of bees. For intelligent buildings, this refers to a decentralized architecture in which each piece of software acts autonomously but also works collaboratively with other autonomous elements of the system. This results in a more scalable and resilient model with no single point of failure.
• The convergence of AI and IoT into AIoT is another hallmark of the intelligent building. AIoT is driven by the fact that the collection of massive amounts of data, transferred to a server and analyzed centrally is not practical as data increases even further. With AIoT, data isn’t computed centrally, but instead in real-time at the edge or even by the IoT itself. This shift increases operational efficiency and allows the IoT to effectively think for itself so it can learn from mistakes and set a different course of action accordingly.

While the functions of intelligent buildings will appear simple to users of the space, a plethora of advanced technology is at work behind the scenes. A full picture of the building, including a map of the environment with knowledge of temperature, light level, energy use and occupancy will form the basis of real-time, automated decision-making. Outside, technology will monitor things like heat loss, air quality and wind speed. Renewable sources like solar panels and wind turbines will be used to power the building’s systems, while the building predicts its own energy needs, storing excess energy for peak times or sending it back to the grid.

In the not-too-distant future, intelligent buildings will not only make our lives more convenient and pleasant, but also have a regenerative effect on climate, boosting biodiversity, reducing pollution and generating green energy. For more information on Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s activities in smart and intelligent buildings, visit this webpage.