Book Review : ‘Intelligent’ Buildings Combine Technology

Intelligent Buildings: Strategies for Technology and Architecture by Michelle D. Gouin and Thomas E. Cross (Dow Jones Irwin, Homewood, Ill., 233 pages, $25).

The notion of the “intelligent building” has been around for several years now and has been the subject of numerous writings, mostly magazine and newspaper articles and advertisements. In some cases it has become a fad or buzz-word; some developers who offer relatively little more than the traditional “dumb” building’s heat, water and electric power call their properties “intelligent.” In many other cases the distinction is real and valid.

Although the authors begin with a teasing line, “The best definition of an intelligent building is one that is fully leased,” they continue by offering a refined definition: When a building has a positive influence on productivity, it is intelligently designed; when it serves the needs of the “information age” business community, it is an intelligent building.

They point out very early that the intelligent building “combines two previously separate sets of technologies through an information network.” They are the building management technologies (building automation) that control such systems as heating and air conditioning, and the information technologies (office automation) which control communications operations.

This is the “high-tech” side of the proposition. The authors then add comfort in the working environment as the “high touch” side, in itself an important aid to increased productivity.

In its nine chapters, the book defines and describes the intelligent building; puts the business case for it both to the builder or owner and the tenant; describes the services it must offer, breaking them down into the building’s own control center, its information systems and its automated control systems; the integration of technologies--networking; the impact of information technology on buildings and people, and the intelligent building’s response to information technology requirements.

The authors--Gouin is a consultant and writer, Cross is the managing director of Cross Information Co.--say the book is directed toward tenants and developers but that architects can find it useful. This reviewer would add engineers and interior (office designers) to that final category.

“Intelligent Buildings” is not a bit of light reading for a lazy afternoon; it is written like what it is, a textbook with a good textbook’s clarity, brevity and completeness. Taken as such it could be of great value to the primary targets, developers and tenants, whose knowledge of the subject probably ranges from minimal to zilch, and of considerable value to the other targets, perhaps in helping organize their knowledge or suggesting things that had been previously overlooked.