THESIS PROPOSAL

BUILDING AUTOMATION IN A CHANGING CLIMATE:

SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH INTELLIGENT-BUILDING CONCEPTS

PETER OUMA [B02/0255/2006] 7/17/2012

Email: ptrouma@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION The climate is changing fast and technology is advancing even faster. While the two seem to be at opposite ends of the pole in terms of sustainable development, new ideas in architecture are trying to merge concepts from sustainability and information technology. The argument is that ideas from IT can be incorporated into architectural design to create building environments that are both sustainable and human friendly. With the help of IT, climate change can be managed and buildings can be endowed with self-sufficiency. The application of IT to architectural design in the building industry has been through the area of intelligent-building (IB), alternatively labelled as building automation systems (BAS). This is the integration of computerized systems with the conventional building services of water, electricity, air-conditioning, vertical circulation and security. The integration has been achieved through different stages over the past 20 years, determined mainly by advances in computerized systems, miniaturization of microprocessors and conversion of building systems from analogue to digital. On the other hand, practitioners in the building industry are grappling with the effects of climate change, and thus turning to sustainable building concepts to bring the crisis under control. The areas that are of great concern include ways of reducing CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases, efficient use of available energy sources to curb depletion and transitioning to renewable ones, proper use of building materials and reduction of a buildings embodied energy within its lifecycle. In a nutshell, it seems there are two groups separately concerned with IT in buildings and sustainability in architectural design. The question therefore is whether its possible to bring these disparate groups together by applying building automation systems to achieve concepts in sustainability. The advance of IT and its application in architecture has led to a variety of intelligent-building concepts that have the potential to solve many problems brought about by the changing climate. Considering that building automation systems have not been fully adopted by the industry in Kenya, it is wise to ensure that their future adoption integrate well and sensibly with principles of sustainable design. The clash between digital technologies and climate change is an inevitable one since both are exponential. Therefore its only sensible to try and harmonize the two areas by considering how building automation can save energy, create self-sustaining buildings and responsive environments to facilitate customizable user comfort. There has been tremendous growth in the area of digital technologies mainly in networking and computerized systems. It will be a waste to retrogress these achievements, even with the looming threat of climate change. Why not use these technologies to create intelligent buildings that can help us thwart this crisis, apply a 21st century solution to a 21st century problem.
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PROBLEM STATEMENT The main problem in the study is how to successfully apply building automation systems to sustainable design. How can building systems and services be automated in the aim of achieving sustainable designs? Another way to put it is that building systems and services that are vast and difficult to manage need automation in order to be sustainable. In this day and age of a dynamic climate, buildings need to adapt quickly to drastic changes in the external environment in order to maintain favourable indoor conditions for human habitation. A static building in terms of energy use and interior controls is not responsive to this elusive climate. A dynamic building on the other hand is equipped with enough intelligence as to change its internals in response to external stimuli and phenomena such as light intensities; temperature drops, electricity outages and unpredictable weather. The study is concerned with ways of achieving this dynamism by introducing intelligent-building concepts in tandem with building automation systems to assist in the managing and monitoring of the factors that can be controlled automatically and also those that are the main focus or that lend themselves well to sustainability concepts. The assumption is that information technology is mature enough to be applicable in the sensing and gathering of data from the buildings envelope to act as a feedback loop for the controlling of the building fabric in response to this analysed data. Buildings are getting more and more complex as technologies and human activities continue to advance and evolve. Aspects such as overall building maintenance, energy consumption strategies, occupancy management/crowd controls and self-sufficiency demand a way of providing for automation within buildings to achieve any efficiency at all. The most evident solution in the near future is to computerize the systems thereby making the functioning of some aspects such as lighting controls autonomous and responsive to the external environment without full human intervention. Being that we as a society are definitely headed in this direction, the study seeks to analyse ways by which building automation technologies can be reconciled with sustainability demands in the 21 st century. The study and research in building automation systems seeks to isolate specific areas within the building industry that can benefit from intelligent technologies, the main area being designing sustainable buildings. Questions to keep in mind include: - which are the building typologies that are more prone to the applicability of these concepts? What factors need to be considered in the current Kenyan context, in terms of economic state, socio-cultural issues and level of awareness and technology, for these applications to be viable and make sense at all?

A number of critical issues come up when trying to apply intelligent-building concepts to sustainability. The study will concentrate on the following broad areas to serve as the starting point for further research: Contextual relevance. We live in the tropics, and passive techniques seem to be the most sensible ways of dealing with climate change, but not the only solution on the table. How then can such a study convince practitioners that there is future potential in using intelligent-building concepts for sustainability? Practicalities. The theoretical basis of such a study can foster debates toward achieving sustainability, but when it comes to applying these concepts, one has to consider other factors such as economic levels, use of building materials and provision. Are the technologies available, and if so, can the study identify areas of application in existing buildings in Kenya and practitioners who have embraced the concepts? Affordability. The application of digital technologies for the purposes of conserving energy and providing automated building management requires expensive equipment to realize efficiency. How can these be made affordable in the midst of far more cheaper passive techniques, where does the boundary of efficiency in terms of cost lie when comparing passive techniques of sustainability to building automation systems? Perception. Many people view the advance of technology as a recipe for climate change, and argue that the application of intelligent concepts to buildings will only make the situation worse. How can the study prove or disprove this assumption and what research has been done to prove that these concepts can really help in alleviating climate change?

The ultimate research questions lie with the details of both sustainability concepts and building automation concepts. A given fact is that the climate is changing and the main way to evade it, at least within the architectural context is to embrace sustainable design. Another inevitable fact is that information technology is advancing exponentially and will in the future play a great role in the functioning and management of the built environment. The study seeks to bridge the gap between these two inevitable advances by concentrating on areas within building automation and intelligence that can be applied to achieve sustainability and also those areas that are better left to passive techniques. The overall research on these systems will lead to specific areas of analogue and digital data collection through the use of sensors within the building envelop to serve as a measure and a case for the application of the automation systems.
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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Consider the challenges brought about by climate change and find out opportunities within automation systems that can help in mitigating effects of the change, at the building design and services level. Aim to do an overall research on intelligent architecture as built forms whose integrated systems are capable of anticipating and responding to both internal and external phenomena, affecting the performance of the building and the comfort levels of its occupants. The study is to define the idea of an intelligent building and the levels of automation that are practical and in use in the Kenyan context, and their applicability in achieving sustainable designs. To narrow down on areas of sustainable design that can practically and efficiently benefit from integration with building automation systems. A building which is fully equipped with state of the art automation systems might not necessarily be sustainable in the real sense. The study aims at providing a way of distinguishing building automation for the sake of it and building automation geared specifically towards achieving sustainability. This kind of study also aims to establish for a fact that building automation systems can be applied to sustainability issues and ultimately help in mitigating effects of climate change. Also to identify ways by which the improper application of automation systems can contribute to the effects of climate change and provide for ways of using the systems without adversely affecting the environment. The study aims at identifying the overall capabilities and opportunities of intelligent-building concepts in various building levels such as: building services, building facades, material properties, communication systems and level of manual override or remote control by occupants. This provides the awareness that sustainable design permeates all levels of architectural design, and intelligent building concepts cannot be divorced from the buildings facades and choice of materials. The research is going to provide ways of collecting environmental data within an automated building, this opens up the opportunity of comparative analysis with other data for validation purposes. The objective therefore is to correlate data from automation systems and the expected functionality from a sustainable system. If the two match, well and good, otherwise look for ways by which the two can be merged to increase efficiency in terms of energy use, light intensity controls and heat dissipation.
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SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY The study is going to either rule out or support the case for using integrated building automation systems with an end to achieving sustainability. The importance of this endeavour cannot be overstated, either way; we will be better placed as architectural designers in dealing with climate change and choosing appropriate methods and technologies for combating it. The study will consider areas where building automation has been used to serve as cases for appropriate ways of applying these technologies and also areas where more could have been done towards sustainability. This will help in categorizing types of intelligent building systems in light of the changing climate for further study. Eventually influence the adoption of sustainable automation systems by the building industry, considering that automated buildings are easy to monitor in terms of energy consumption. It is important to understand the technologies and implementations of building automation systems so as to ascertain their viability in mitigating climate change. The study is going to identify in details the functions of a building automation system such as collection of continuous measurement data at regular time intervals from a large number of sensors, the appropriate location of these sensors at different zones of the building for correct data sampling and the control mechanisms that are to respond to the collected data. This process of data collection over a period of time will serve as a benchmark for evaluating a buildings claim at sustainability, also provide for ways of analysing the data in tandem with passive techniques. This has the added benefit of identifying areas with a building that need automation for efficiency and those areas that are better served by passive design. The study is going to investigate whether these automation technologies are in the current Kenyan market and find out areas of applicability apart from the built environment. This will serve as a point of departure in the discussion of the possible application and integration with conventional building systems. To identify areas and building typologies where there is documented success in the use of the automated systems and thus provide a case for their use in mitigating climate change. The study is significant in that it can bring on board intelligent-building concepts for adoption in sustainable design. Develop a niche in the market for sustainable building automation systems.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS Being that climate change is a wide topic of discussion, the study is going to concentrate on the specific applicable concepts of sustainability and ignore the areas of sustainable development which encompasses other broader socio-economic factors. The research is also going to be focused towards achieving sustainability using building services concepts, energy systems and ultimately narrow down on the automation of these systems for the same goal of achieving sustainability. Information technology is also a broad topic, so the study is going to focus on digital technologies that can be integrated with building systems with the sole objective of achieving sustainability. The main building system of study will be the intelligent building envelop as it is the demarcation between the internal and external environments of a building. Data collection from the external environment in an automated building also seem to be concentrated and integrated within the building skin, sensors and actuators that respond to changes in the climate. In such a technology study, there are huge limitations in terms of local cases, so research is going to borrow a lot from international cases and isolate specific areas within the subject of building automation that can be of benefit to the local context. If local cases are available, the study will concentrate on one aspect of a building that makes it both intelligent and sustainable such as lighting control or shading devices that are somehow dynamic. The study is also going to be limited to certain building typologies that lend themselves well for integration with building automation systems, high performance buildings and self-sufficient buildings in terms of energy use and management. This is in consideration of the fact that not all building types can benefit from an automation system for sustainability due to economic viability. Due also to time constraints, the research will look at specific areas of building automation such as lighting control that map well into sustainability concepts, thereby filtering out areas that consider the totality of an automated building such as security and access. This will be done by considering what comprises a building automation system and identifying categories or subsystems within the greater whole of a fully automated building. Due to a wide array of building automation technologies and the level of detail needed to describe the inner workings of such technologies, the study is going to be limited to generic automation systems and their impact, whether positive or negative, on sustainable design. Focus is also going to be on the data collected both from literature review and in the field, to help in determining the relevance of application of building automation systems towards sustainability.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Literature review -Information on the subject matter is going to be collected mainly through secondary research material due to the limitation of local cases. Secondary material is to comprise publications that outline the approach of building automation systems towards achieving sustainability. -Compilation of the information through research to present an overview on the subject. -Examination of the relevant data collected and presents in order to develop an insight into the subject. -Published materials, such as handbooks, reports and books relating to achieving sustainability through intelligent-building concepts. -Internet sourcing, from websites especially of information that cannot be sourced locally, magazines, reports and conference proceedings. -the research material is initially going to consider independent publications on climate change and building automation so as to provide as a foundation for the integration of the two topics. Specific books that cover the topics in combination will be considered after thorough background research on the individual subject matters. Case study and data collection This study is limited to high performance buildings in relatively urban areas of Kenya .The local cases are to be determined after careful analysis of the available buildings with sufficient technology as to warrant further investigation. Observation analysis using photographs and sketches: -Field study and observation techniques will be applied with physical capturing of information by sketches and photographs with annotations. Interviews: - Conducted on a verbal basis will be used to collect information from building occupants of identified buildings and presented in form of questionnaires.

THESIS CHAPTER BREAKDOWN Chapter one: introduction Chapter two: literature review The changing climate in a digital age Intelligent-building concepts and relevance to sustainability Chapter three: research methods Methodologies and data collection Local and international cases Chapter four: data analysis Chapter five: conclusions and recommendations

INITIAL REFERENCES -Architecture in a climate of change: a guide to sustainable design by Peter F. Smith -Intelligent skins by Michael Wigginton and Jude Harris -Intelligent buildings and building automation -Smart building in a changing climate
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Ideas of the intelligent building and its envelop Evolution of responsive buildings