“A building created to give its users the most efficient environment; at the same time, the building utilizes and manages resources efficiently and minimizes the life costs of hardware and facilities”;
The approaches to defining an IB can be grouped into three categories as listed below:
- Performance- based definitions;
- Services- based definitions;
- System- based definitions.
Performance-based definition
Performance- based IB definitions emphasize building performance and the demands of users rather than the technologies or systems provided. According to this category of definition, owners and developers of buildings need to understand correctly what kind of buildings they want and also how to satisfy continuously the increasing demands of users. Energy and environmental performances of buildings are certainly among the important issues of an IB. An intelligent building should also adapt itself quickly in response to internal and external conditions, and to meet the changing demands of users.
A typical performance- based IB definition may be that of the European Intelligent Building Group (EIBG) located in the United Kingdom. It defines an IB as:
“a building created to give its users the most efficient environment; at the same time, the building utilizes and manages resources efficiently and minimizes the life costs of hardware and facilities”;
Another example of a performance- based definition is that given by the Intelligent Building Institute (IBI) in the United States, which states that:
“an IB provides a highly efficient, comfortable and convenient environment by satisfying four fundamental demands: structure, system, service and management, and optimizing their interrelationship”.
Service-based definition
Services- based definitions describe IBs from the viewpoint of services and/or quality of services provided by buildings. The Japanese Intelligent Building Institute (JIBI) provides an example of a services- based definition:
“an IB is a building with the service functions of communication, office automation and building automation, and is convenient for intelligent activities”.
The key issues of IBs in Japan focus on the following four services aspects:
- Serving as a locus for receiving and transmitting information and supporting efficient management;
- Ensuring satisfaction and convenience of persons working inside;
- Rationalization of building management to provide more attractive administrative services at lower cost;
- Fast, flexible and economical responses to the changing sociological environment, diverse and complex working demands and active business strategies.
System-based definition
System- based IB definitions describe IBs by directly addressing the technologies and technology systems that IBs should include. A typical system- based IB definition is the one suggested in the Chinese IB Design Standard (GB/T50314–2000), which states that:
“IBs provide building automation, office automation and communication network systems, and an optimal composition integrates the structure, system, service and management, providing the building with high efficiency, comfort, convenience and safety to users”.
A more straightforward system- based IB definition has been used by some professionals and developers in practice. It labels the IBs as ‘3A’, which represents building automation (BA), communication automation (CA) and office automation (OA).
Source: Intelligent Buildings and Building Automation, 2010 Edition
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