Helping you unlock value from building technology
We live in a digital world and our built environment is keeping up with this rapidly evolving revolution. In recent years Building Management Systems (BMS) have become ever more sophisticated in automating a panoply of controls for the daily functions of a building – from fire safety to heating and hot water, from electrical monitoring to cooling systems.
Buro Happold’s expert building management systems team is an industry leader, with extensive experience in BMS and automatic controls both in new building designs and in refurbishments, where we apply our knowledge and experience to upgrading existing buildings and systems for the 21st century.
Our building management systems and controls experts unlock the potential of technology in ‘people-centric design’ to achieve high-performance buildings and enhance sustainability, leading the way in smart buildings and building diagnostics.
We work closely with clients and key stakeholders to design a wide range of building management systems tailored specifically around performance, stakeholder needs and individual preferences.
We provide advisory and design services across a broad range of packages as well as integrated building management systems.
Our experts bring expertise in energy management systems, building management systems, lighting control systems, access control systems and CAFM systems (computer-aided facilities management).
The evolution of building management systems has seen many changes. From previously manual techniques, we have developed automated and integrated systems that collect more data more efficiently. Cognitive AI-empowered systems are now increasingly common, able not only to gather but interpret and act on data. These systems require specialist knowledge to set up and optimise to deliver the best results and return on investment.
Why good Building Management Systems matter
In a 2021 World Economic Forum Report a range of benefits offered by effective and optimised systems were highlighted. These include:
- The use of basic automated building controls can save 10-15% of energy in commercial buildings
- More advanced BMS functionality can save an additional 5-10% in energy
- Integrating building systems together can yield incremental energy savings of 8-18% over basic HVAC and lighting control
- Energy Information Management Systems that uses advanced metering to monitor the end use in buildings save 3% on average, while diagnostics can save an average of 9% in energy use
- Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings (GEBs) can reduce energy costs by up to 20% through active demand management whilst also providing demand flexibility and resilience.
Multi award winning building performance consultants with a proven track record
In 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 we were crowned CIBSE ‘Building Performance Consultancy of the Year’. We also brought home the CIBSE 2020 Building Performance Engineer of the Year award, with the team praised by judges for ‘superb levels of experience and knowledge in the discipline of building management systems and controls.’
Our experts are not just satisfied with supporting clients in delivering their vision, but are keen to always push the industry forward and actively support industry bodies such as the global CIBSE ICT and controls steering committee, and the Building Controls Industry Association.
Our building management systems consultancy services include
- Advisory and design services for integrated building management systems
- BMS energy performance audits
- Strategic upgrades of BMS supporting net zero carbon pathways
- Procurement support technical reviews
- Fault diagnostics and expert witness
- Portfolio/large estate client strategy
- Standard development and full design stage advisory and design services for development projects
expertise At every stage
Planning
Our advisory services can be layered onto a single project or estate and include systems health checks, energy assessments to BS EN 15232 and energy benchmarking. We can support clients’ net zero carbon strategies and offer control optimisation advice and strategy.
Our experts are also able to offer end of life replacement strategies for building systems, as well as planning integration projects, site-wide or portfolio platforms and electronic systems and security management.
We can create a full system design brief as well as offering litigation and legal expert support.
Design & Implementation
We design a range of building management systems, working closely with clients and stakeholders. Our designs are tailored specifically around the individual preferences and performance needs of the client.
We have established close working relationships with industry bodies, such as CIBSE and BCIA, enabling us to offer the ‘best-in-breed’ solutions and future proofed systems that will meet the needs of tomorrow.
Our teams provide support to the commissioning phase including client witnessing and validation, digital witnessing at a forensic level to ensure full compliance against the brief and defect resolution management and support to successful completion.
Run / Operate / Review
We bring more than 20 years’ experience of undertaking post-occupancy evaluations to understand at a deep technical level the value in building management and controls.
Our experts can develop and deliver end user training for building management systems as well as carrying out stakeholder interviews and end user surveys to collect and analyse feedback and compare this to a range of key performance indicators and objectives set at the start of the project.
Project highlights
British Museum
London, UK
On this project, we provided strategic advice to the client on the phased upgrade of existing legacy BMS and controls equipment, identifying energy and future-proofing requirements.
Our interventions to upgrade the existing BMS system included optimised control programming and future-proofing features such as embedding semantic tagging standards and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity to enable a diagnostic solution to be deployed.
This approach is enabling our clients to move against a wider strategy of estate upgrades and net zero carbon pathways.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
London, UK
The client’s vision was for technology to be a key part of the design of the new building.
We provided strategic advice and design services across the new stadium’s BMS systems. These included innovative control routines to optimise cooling, ensuring the comfort of staff and visitors, and minimising energy use through the integration of automated fault detection alarms.
One highly bespoke feature of the project was a retractable pitch and the environmental systems and controls which will keep the pitch healthy and vibrant in storage when the stadium switches to NFL mode.
Whitworth Art Gallery
Manchester, UK
Our team developed a ‘slow conservation’ strategy which uses a clever mix of passive and active systems to optimise energy, occupant comfort and the preservation of art.
It is part of the Whitworth’s mission that this pioneering approach to conservation can be replicated globally, taking this approach to cultural venues and countries that might find conventional climate control too costly.
It is one of the most significant achievements of the Whitworth Art Gallery’s refurbishment, and it is one you won’t be able to see.
Wiltshire College
Wiltshire, UK
Our team developed energy efficient control strategies to ensure the project aligned with the college’s ambitious sustainability objectives.
These included optimised control programming for 350m2 of roof-mounted PV solar panels, a ground source heat pump, and 100% LED lighting throughout the building.
We responded to our client’s aim to minimise energy waste with a bespoke building management system (BMS) that links the college room booking system with the timetable to ensure that heating and cooling resources focus only on rooms that are in use.
