Intelligence rating

Architectural Review, The, June, 2005 by Rab Bennetts

INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS: DESIGN, MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION

Edited by Derek Clements-Croome. London: Thomas Telford Books. 2004. [pounds sterling]49.50

INTELLIGENT SKINS

By Michael Wigginton, Jude Harris. Oxford: Elsevier. 2004. [pounds sterling]38.99

The idea that buildings or major components might have some kind of intelligence conjures up an image of technical sophistication to rival the mechanisms of nature--buildings that can be programmed to provide a utopian setting for human activity, with minimal impact on the planet's resources. These two books, both of which have their roots in academia, show that no such clarity about the definition of building intelligence exists.

Intelligent Buildings, which comprises a series of lengthy essays and case-studies dense with cross-references to other books or papers, is a 400-page technical textbook that leaves the reader exhausted and confused. It seems that the realm of Intelligent Buildings not only embraces the expected--smart materials, mechanical louvres or computerised control systems but also the unexpected in the form of design and project management, new working methods and, inevitably, sustainability. This lack of precision gives the impression that almost anything at the leading edge of today's design and construction industry constitutes an Intelligent Building.

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By contrast, Wigginton and Harris provide some welcome focus in Intelligent Skins, with a narrow definition of intelligence based on the responsiveness of the external envelope. This allows them to concentrate on a series of 22 carefully selected case studies, with the intention of analysing them consistently for various aspects of their design and performance.

Despite the lack of consensus, there is a theme that unites the various authors, which is a concern for buildings that actually work for their users. This is hardly a definition of Intelligent Buildings unless the term is simply meant to distinguish between architecture that is flawed in its execution from that which is more thoughtful, or intelligent. Nevertheless, it is a noble topic, hugely neglected by many prominent designers (and publishers) who tend to favour imagery at the expense of function. Perhaps unwittingly, both books underline the size of the task facing those who seek more objectivity in the assessment of building performance, by revealing the absence of hard information from which architects, among others, can make their design decisions. Energy efficiency is one such example.

While the case-studies in Intelligent Buildings are interesting of their type, none goes as far as to assess proven energy performance, with the effect that the innovations demonstrated in the book have to be taken on trust. If they don't work, it is possible that readers will replicate any mistakes in future buildings. Although Intelligent Skins has a more rigorous checklist of assessment criteria, it is significant that only half of the case-study buildings were able to provide energy performance data, meaning that iconic buildings by Foster, Piano et al are published without the evidence to support their 'intelligent' claims. Of those that did provide data, it is evident that the figures needed further normalisation for comparisons to be meaningful.

Without supporting data, the whole subject of Intelligent Buildings remains aspirational at best and misleading at worst. Perhaps the lesson of these two books is that intelligent building is a process, not a product.