Buro Happold’s smart building consultants are at the forefront of digital innovation in the built environment, well-versed in the latest technologies, we help you define the vision, develop and execute a strategy focused to your business outcomes around everything from digital twins to integrated building management systems, tenant apps and visitor management systems to smart lighting and lockers.
In the digitally connected world in which we live, we are at the forefront of responding to the changing nature of the built environment, the evolving demands of building users and the changing requirements of business. “Location, location, location“ is now challenged by “location, efficiency, experience“.
Technology is restructuring every aspect of the built environment, from smart city integration to seamless workplace apps and performance diagnostics. The world today is increasingly reliant on data – and it can be used to understand, improve and enrich our relationship with the built environment.
Cutting through the noise
Our smart building consultants help clients to understand the digital landscape and the value that technology and digital services can bring to a development in increased revenue and reduced bottom line costs. Digitally connected people, systems and buildings create 21st century spaces and user experiences, improving information sharing, community engagement, with lower energy consumption and carbon impact.
With asset optimisation, better facilities management and occupant safety, smarter buildings can streamline business processes and expand profits.
While historically the smart system market has focussed on delivering operational efficiency and insights, it has greatly expanded its reach and value enabling greater personalisation and customisation for end users, empowering occupants and improving community culture. In addition, greater awareness around CSR, data privacy and security as well as ethics has meant that deploying technology responsibly and interrogating data carefully is also a key requirement.
Why creating smarter buildings matters
In a 2021 World Economic Forum Report a range of benefits offered by effective and optimised smart buildings 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.
Our smart building consultancy services include
- Smart building strategy and design services
- Smart building assessment i.e. SmartScore, Spire etc.
- Portfolio or enterprise digital solutions
- Digital audits to measure your current digital maturity
- Peer review and expert witness
- Business case development
- Market research studies
- Post occupancy / soft landing support
- Retro fitting smart systems
expertise At every stage
Planning
Our smart building consultants offers comprehensive strategy services, including an analysis of macro trends influencing the broader evolutions for technology adoption in your market.
We provide an analysis of the client’s strategic aims, developing character profiles, experience mapping, stakeholder engagement analysis and opportunity mapping.
Our experts will appraise technologies in terms of cost (CapEx/OpEX), relevance/risk, and benefits as bottom-line (operational) and top-line (revenue) return. We will also develop a holistic value and integrated digital solution strategy and roadmap to the successful implementation of the appropriate technology solutions.
Design & Implementation
Our advisory and design services will support you to refine and execute the strategy during the design programme for operation on the first day of business.
We will outline design standards and options and produce a detailed technology roadmap for each technology system or service. Our teams can also help to coordinate the integration of technologies with architectural and engineering designs.
Our team will develop a bespoke technology matrix, including design, procurement, installation and operation responsibility as well as developing a design for digital infrastructure, systems and services.
Run / Operate / Review
Our experienced team of smart building consultants will support you during the operational phase as required, including the development of end user training in the digital systems and services.
We can conduct stakeholder user interviews and/or electronic end user surveys and use the results to adapt the technology as necessary. We collect and analyse feedback from the initial operational phase and refine for optimisation against defined KPIs.
Project highlights
EQ Offices
Bristol, UK
Buro Happold worked closely with the client and the design team to weave low energy, sustainable design and technology through every level of the building. It is the first building in the world to achieve SmartScore certification.
Smart technologies are embedded through the building, including a digital ceiling with lighting sensors, integrated visitor management and analytics, touch free interfaces and contactless access, real time energy use data, as well as indoor air quality monitoring and performance dashboards.
Working alongside WiredScore and Buro Happold to achieve this landmark SmartScore certification is fantastic for CEG and Bristol. The exceptional design of EQ and the technological prowess it embraces responds to the step change in the way people are working and occupying space. This drive to meet our customers’ needs now, and in the future, has delivered a global benchmark in one of the UK’s most exciting cities.
Nick Lee, Development Director at CEG
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
London, UK
The client’s vision was to embed technology throughout the stadium – elevating fan experience to the top of the league with a smart, secure and digital stadium.
We provided strategic advice and design services across 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.
Other features included 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.
Workplace Analytics for Vodafone
London, UK
Buro Happold’s smart building consultants worked closely with Vodafone to transform its workplaces, to integrate the latest smart building technologies to support the company’s ways of working, employee wellbeing activity and to use technology to drive the overall productivity of the business.
Using the SmartViz platform, our experts helped the business to interrogate the mass of raw data produced by its global portfolio, and has supported the company with the installation of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to maximise the utilisation of the spaces available.
Vodafone is committed to using data to transform workplaces, ways of working, employee wellbeing and productivity. The analytics and insights provided by Buro Happold’s SmartViz platform have helped us not only streamline the data across our global portfolio of assets, it has also helped us expand our use of IoT sensors and data in boosting space utilisation and employee productivity.
Richard Muraszko, Group Property Strategy Manager, Vodafone
