Technology has always influenced the buildings we build, and always will. Twenty-five to 30 years ago, however, the amount of technology in a building was minimal. It consisted of the public telecommunications utility installing its services in a building; a mechanical contractor installing a pneumatic control system for the heating, cooling, and ventilation system; and maybe a word-processing system. Although we have come a long way since those days, we are still in a very early stage of fully deploying and integrating technology systems into buildings. In due course, buildings will become full of technology. Walls and ceilings will be embedded with sensors, and every aspect of a building’s performance and use will be metered and measured. Software tools will be used to automatically optimize building systems without human intervention; real-time information about the building that is relevant to their particular needs will be provided to occupants and building management. Buildings will be fully interactive with the power grid, and geospatial location systems will be deployed for every building asset.
