Architects, designers, builders and operators are continually developing buildings with humans in mind. Smart buildings are responsive, comfortable, safe and efficient. The days when building maintenance meant a solitary caretaker with a mop, bucket and a screwdriver in his back pocket prowling dusty corridors are long gone. Better, healthier buildings, featuring the latest advancements in technologies, are the new norm. It is the age of the smart building.
We’ve seen huge technological advancements within the built environment. Smart buildings use technology to improve comfort, safety and efficiency for their people. And this is applied right across the board from large-scale residential complexes to hotels and hospitality, offices and public spaces. More and more buildings now feature a host of groundbreaking digital technologies to support their day-today running and maintenance such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and the Internet of Things (IoT).
SMART CHOICES
The proliferation of smart building technology is accelerating, with a range of solutions available for all types of buildings. Here at BSRIA, every day brings us a new testing regimen on a product and service specifically designed for smart buildings. This is right across the board from intelligent pumps to low-noise air conditioning units and heat networks. Energy efficiency and sustainability now go hand in hand with product performance, and there’s a greater reliance on tools that capture data, identifying trends and changes within a building’s environment and adapting accordingly.
With such a wide range of options and costs, it can be difficult to know which solution to invest in. It’s vital when implementing smart building technology to ensure the right people and processes are in place to take advantage of the technology, with high savings possible from energy and maintenance. It’s also imperative that occupants have an awareness of how a building operates – it’s pointless having a smart net zero building if there isn’t net zero behaviour.
GETTING TECH SMART
For those navigating this technology minefield, our Publications team at BSRIA has designed a new guide BG 91 -Procuring Smart Building Technology designed to help anybody responsible for evaluating, selecting, and implementing smart building technologies.
It covers the full procurement process, from defining needs to delivering benefits, ensuring the right people, processes and technology are in place to maximise the return on investment. This is practical guidance for both technical and non-technical decision-makers, advising on capital and operational expenditure for a single building or a portfolio. The guide highlights the importance of reviewing current infrastructure, assessing baseline energy use and maintenance costs, and engaging with the people who will deliver savings, before investing in smart technology, ensuring any upgrade is data-driven, practical, and delivers maximum value.
PROCUREMENT AND PERFORMANCE
Smart building technology encompasses an integrated ecosystem of connected devices, sensors, software platforms, and analytical tools that have the potential to enhance building efficiency, occupant experience, sustainability, and asset value. These systems collect realtime data about energy consumption, environmental conditions, equipment status, and occupant behaviour to enable automated control and informed decision-making.
BG 91 details how smart technologies – such as IoT sensors, analytics platforms, AI, predictive maintenance, and digital twins – can provide real-time insights, automated fault detection, and performance optimisation. It outlines step-by-step procurement strategies, including requirements definition, estimating costs and ROI, vendor evaluation frameworks, and the significance of open communication protocols and ontology for future-proofing investments. The guide addresses implementation processes, emphasises stakeholder engagement, and the change management process needed to ensure successful adoption.
The guidance in BG 91 is focused on control of building services through a central building management system, but the guide can be applied to any building. Those managing a portfolio of smaller buildings will also find value in the guide. www.bsria.com/uk