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Opinion Articles
High-Tech & Technology -
DUN’S
100
|
2016/17
22
Opinion Article
A
2010 study found
that people who
work in 25°C are
more than twice as produc-
tive as those who work in
21 °C.
1
Where productivity
is imperative, the call “Turn
off the air-conditioner!” is
certainly an unnecessary
distraction. But employee welfare isn’t the only
important factor governing the everyday life of
a typical office building: energy consumption
– whether mechanical or human – in unused
spaces and systems, is a key consideration
for organizations incessantly seeking ways
to achieve organizational efficiency and cost
savings.
Nowadays, managers, engineers and architects
alike face the need to make organizations more
efficient. Naturally, there exist different ap-
proaches to this issue. One interesting take
involves seeing efficiency as part of a larger
set of issues – sustainability and employee
comfort. Marrying these considerations and
undertaking a holistic approach, Mochly-Eldar
Architects is designing a first-of-its-kind office
building in Israel for a leading semiconductor
company. This building uses IoT – the Inter-
net of Things – to improve employee welfare;
streamline the organization’s work; and design
the greenest building in Israel. We deemed it
worthy to write this article and probe the de-
sign considerations for the office buildings of
the future.
What a “Smart Building” Is
During the past few decades a huge leap has
taken place both in green architecture and in
developing solutions for inhabitant comfort:
the “Smart Building.” It is able not only to au-
tomatically dim the lights, but also neutralize
unnecessary distractions, accommodate em-
ployee preferences, and improve efficiency.
The IoT system, which provides employees
with access to the building through an inter-
face synced with employee timetables and work
environment preferences, provides the build-
ing with the information required for optimal
system management.
The human-building interaction turns into a ma-
jor energy efficiency opportunity on the one
hand, and HR economy on the other; where
energy economy, organization efficiency and
personal work environment customization over-
lap, one can kill three birds with one stone.
Based on user-gathered information, the sys-
tem regulates the climate in entire sections of
the building, and even seats together employ-
ees with similar preferences. Where almost
30% of energy usage is for cooling/heating
unused spaces, rethinking ways to read the
pulse is key.
Suppose that on a certain day approximately
40% of employees are out of the office, while
others man their stations. In a typical building,
the lighting and air-conditioning systems con-
tinue to work normally, and cleaning personnel
empty all trash cans. By contrast, in a smart
building, the system receives feedback from
the calendars of out-of-office employees, so the
electric points in their stations automatically
shut off. Maintenance managers, furthermore,
can brief the cleaning personnel that only 60%
of stations need attending to.
Dynamic systems
From a climate perspective, such system can
join forces with existing green technologies,
such as shading and natural ventilation. To au-
tomatically adjust the shading angle for each
workstation, shading algorithms combine cli-
matic data with the employee’s lighting pref-
erences – to get the perfect louvre angle. In
addition, opening the building envelope to
fresh air reduces recycled air side-effects (e.g.
headaches and dizziness), as well as moisture
buildup.
If most employees don’t have allocated worksta-
tions, the system can automatically rearrange
workstations daily according to tasks and meet-
ings schedules, grouping those with similar pref-
erences and switching off mechanical systems
in unused sections. Thanks to this method, the
EDGE building recently constructed in Amsterdam
has earned the title “world’s smartest building”
and “world’s greenest building” – at the same
time. Two birds, one stone.
3
The opportunities of a unified strategy are
endless, but what are the potential challenges
it poses? First, privacy: employers know their
employees’ locations at any point in time; thus,
IoT would undoubtedly require formulating in-
ternal regulations – perhaps even legislation
– to maintain boss-worker balance. Further-
more, organizations must secure the system
with extreme care lest sensitive information
leaks out. Although certain features might pose
ethical and logistical problems for the “Smart
Building” and IoT, one must remember that the
various building elements are not necessarily
interdependent; each parameter has its own
level of autonomy. For example, to overcome
the privacy issue, the feature of dynamic station
arrangement via employees’ smartphones can
be eliminated. Since this technology is evolv-
ing and developing, it is natural that there are
several challenges to be overcome – but the
potential for sustainability, human or mechani-
cal, certainly justifies the effort.
1. Seth Porges, “Your Air-Conditioned Office Could Be Hurting
Your Productivity—Here’s How to Fight Back.”
Bloomberg.com,23 August, 2016.
2. Eric Brown, “Who Needs the Internet of Things,”
Linux.com.
Published Sep 13, 2016.
3.TomRandall,“TheSmartestBuilding intheWorld.”Bloomberg.
com. Published Sep 23, 2015.
The Office of the Future: the “Smart Building”
By Dagan Mochly, CEO Mochly Eldar Architects
Dagan Mochly
Dagan Mochly, President and CEO, Mochly-Eldar Architects