A new definition of intelligent buildings for Asia

Intelligent building (IB) is the future of our building industry. All new commercial buildings and probably luxurious domestic buildings are designed with a common goal – to become intelligent buildings. However, the official definition of IB has not yet been standardised around the world. In the USA, an IB is categorised by four basic elements, namely building structure, building systems, building services and building management. In Europe, the emphasis is on information technology and the genuine need of the user. In Singapore and China, it appears that the term “automation” has been dominating with a great emphasis on high technology. It is our view that a proper definition of IB should be based on users’ needs instead of the image of the building itself. We have therefore developed a new method for defining and specifying IBs. The requirements of users are categorised into eight key modules. All building systems and features are summarised in terms of tens of elements. Selected elements are assigned to a particular key area, i.e. module. Each type of building is then allocated certain key areas for detailed design. Once the areas have been chosen, the elements will automatically be assigned for the consultants to carry out detailed design works. This concept of definition has both advantages of comprehensiveness and flexibility, hoping that it will be useful for the developments of IBs not merely in Asia but also the whole world.