Module B1 Study Book - the Graduate School of the Environment

system will strive to exploit the use of natural forces and minimize the need
to import energy from non-renewable sources.’
This paper focuses the development of ‘intelligent buildings’. It initially
seeks to understand the term ‘intelligent’ and then endeavours to outline the
different aspects of designs and technologies that make a building ‘intelligent.
Finally, a number of case study examples are looked at for both new build
and refurbishment conditions.
2. What makes an ‘Intelligent’ Building?
The sketch below shows an ‘intelligent building’: ‘employing up-to-date
information with all aspects of the building fabric controlled, monitored or
modified by a central “brain”’.
The label of ‘intelligent’ was first applied to buildings in the 1980s that
incorporated large quantities of information technology.
Lecture: Intelligent buildings, offices 75