Editorial

Abstract

In an inspiring presentation on May 19th in a webinar arranged by the CIBSE Intelligent Buildings Group the environmental psychologist Anicee Bauer speaking from Amsterdam reminded us of some fundamental issues that affect how we behave and the consequential influences they have on sustainability. Our expectancies have reached a level that outstrip what the Earth can comfortably provide. Speeds of action we demand today can mean any deep thinking is curtailed so shallow outcomes result. Buildings or cities for example can be soulless and human values sacrificed for monetary gains so value becomes an empty word stretched and banded around without any understanding of the deeper consequences. Embedding actions with real meaning. Head, heart and hands offer not just skill but also thoughtful care, passion and love which one can feel when using a building for example. The atmosphere evoked within a cathedral is palpable and it is obvious that all the crafts people put themselves body and soul into their work over a lifetime in many instances. Bauer believes that spirituality is the root of sustainability. Being close to Nature affects one in many subtle ways. The basic language of the Earth speaks to us and yet so often we ignore it. There is now an urgent sense that we must heed the clues Nature gives us and effect a close bond between the spiritual core of us as creators, our hearts and then adopt an eco-lifestyle that respects the Earth and our place on it. Our actions affect the whole as we realise more and more, we live in an interconnected world. What we do every day impacts the environment, but we wrongly assume each individual action is so small we need not bother about it but these impacts originating from nearly a world population of 8 billion do matter. Bauer concludes we need a change in our thinking about real values with real meaning. There are imperfections in our actions but courage, sincerity and humility can counter these so they become learning experiences. How can technology enable the world painted by Anicee Bauer? Technology is an enabler not a master, but AI helps to streamline connectivity. In this issue, the first paper from Tohoku University in Japan discusses AI as a design rather than as a tool for design. We can imagine AI being the brain of the building connecting all the neural systems feeding the structure and fluid flow systems with wearable technology registering occupiers reactions to their environment. Conscious intelligent buildings are emerging. I recommend the TED Talk 2019 by Danyal Ahmed, the author here, on Architecture in the Age of AI. So, we can envisage the intelligent building becoming more of an organism and this is a theme in the next two papers. A team from Iran describe work on living bio-facades. The 2013 BIQ building in Hamburg is one example but the authors stretch the concept further. The artificial leaf is another development. By using a water wall with the leaves immersed within it acts as a catalyst and produces hydrogen when the sunlight impinges on the wall. Esther Borkowski and her team at UCL take a practical view and examine the current state of adaptive envelopes. The present Building Performance Simulation tools seem to be limited. By collecting a lot of practitioners experiences the authors describe how BPS tools may develop in the future. (note Borkowski now has a Chair at ETH University in Zurich). The next two papers from teams in Australia discuss how BIM enables effective information flows in projects and then how BIM can be used in fire hazard management. In a paper from a team Laval University in Canada they describe a new lighting survey and visualisation method using 3D laser scanning. This will be invaluable to allow users to try out different scenarios. The last paper by a team from the Netherlands shows how valuable the use of focus groups is in procuring data on energy and comfort. A study in homes used generative techniques in a qualitative way to complement quantitative data and so help us to understand more deeply how behaviour patterns affect health and energy use.