Walker-Elders - B4 Project Topic

For my project, I am focusing on how a Facilities Management group could leverage the benefits of maintaining an intelligent building to their advantage, to make their work easier. I will also be looking at how new innovations in intelligent buildings are often left unused after the final completion of construction, and what are some of the causes of this.

As someone who has been studying building design for almost five years, it is easy to forget what happens after the building is designed and constructed, it is occupied. When a building is completed and people actually move inside is when all the work of the designers are truly put to the test, from structural safety, mechanical comfort, and architectural optimization. It is also when all the designs of an intelligent building are put to the test and can be used for the advantage of the maintenance staff and occupants, or (and most likely) they can be completely ignored. In many cases of building maintenance there, many be a few people who could be in charge of dealings with maintaining models to account for renovations or to track the data that the many intelligent sensors were installed to track, and to use the information inside the model to make their job easier, like room types or square-footages. However, in many cases, owners get these huge brilliant models, and either don't have the staff that has the expertise to extract the information from the models, or their Facilities Management group just does not have the interest in using these models to their full potential, but usually, it is some combination of the two. These problems become exaggerated when there is a Facilities Management team in an organization that has to manage multiple, sometimes dozens of buildings, all of varying ages and levels of "intelligence".


One of the goals of intelligent buildings is to make the information easily accessible to the people who are in charge of tracking and maintaining the building, but if people who are not ready for IB models are suddenly in charge of maintaining them and using them, then there becomes an educational issue that divides the designers and the owners. Everyone wants to have and experience the most cutting edge technology, but if there isn't the support there to maintain and use the models, then the goal of IBs are lost at the point of occupancy.

Comments:

Dane,

I think generative design is a great topic, as it is one that we do not know a ton about. I think that there is so much more to come in the next 20 years of generative design as far as engineering buildings are concerned. Programs like RAM are just one step away from being able to completely design a structural system by itself, with little to no input from a human at all. I wonder what the safety implications for this type of generative design would be in AEC moving forward?

Pritesh,

Wow, this project sounds like a lot of work! Is there going to be a specific part of the building engineering that you will focus on to highlight what makes it intelligent? Such as the mechanical or light design in the building? This project will be very useful to you when interviewing for jobs because employers like to see that students have an understanding of all the parts that go into construction documentation.

Jake,

I like that you have decided to write a persuasive paper for this project. I think that there is a lot to be said for the pros of using robotics in the AEC industry but to make a compelling case as to why not having this equipment may be a serious detriment is something that I haven't heard before! I think that this project will be an interesting glance into how some areas are leveraging this technology well like in Dubai, and in places like the US, we are slower to adopt this because we don't see just how beneficial the use of robots could be.