Chapter 1 - What Is a Smart Building?

Abstract

This chapter deals with the history and the concept of smart building. Smart buildings, or at least discussion of the concept, originated in the early 1980s. Smart or intelligent building was defined as “a marriage of two technologies—old-fashioned building management and telecommunications.” 1980s spawned the first real connection between real estate developers and technology. The newly unregulated telecommunications industry presented an opportunity for building owners to resell services within their facilities and add value to their business. This new business model was known as “shared tenant services.” In the next decade or so, there were some modest technological advancements in buildings, including structured cabling systems, audio-visual systems, building automation controllers with direct digital control (DDC), conditioned space for network equipment, access control systems, and video surveillance, among others. A smart building involves the installation and use of advanced and integrated building technology systems. These systems include building automation, life safety, telecommunications, user systems, and facility management systems. Smart buildings recognize and reflect the technological advancements and convergence of building systems, the common elements of the systems and the additional functionality that integrated systems provide. Smart buildings provide actionable information about a building or space within a building to allow the building owner or occupant to manage the building or space.