Two Of The Latest And Most Important Improvements In Commercial Building Technology

Source : Berkley Lab

Commercial building technology is an aspect of human innovation that is constantly changing at its margins. While certain fundamentals of design and architecturally sound construction remain the same throughout the decades and centuries, numerous new technologies processes and advancements in materials are constantly being added on a regular basis.
While there are obviously more existing technical innovations to building design and construction than could possibly be mentioned in anything less than a book, a few fundamental and truly important advancements bear describing in a bit of detail. Let's go over some of the most important building innovations of the last revolutionary decade of construction.

1. Intelligent Buildings
Undoubtedly one of the most important developments in the construction of modern commercial buildings is the increasing shift in the direction of a central computer management system or at the very least several distributed ones. These powerful computing technologies have advanced right along with the general trends in micro-processing and artificial intelligence that we find in our smart phones, PCs and all sorts of other machine administration systems.
By incorporating such systems in the mechanics of operating and maintaining a large building, architectural designers have been able to create work or living spaces in which things such as heating, cooling, air purification and a whole assorted list of systems such as lighting, security and mechanical function are all run by a computer program or series of them, some very intelligent and sophisticated.
Additionally, many intelligent building management systems have the interesting characteristic of being able to be run remotely, either from online control systems from a remote computer or even right through portable mobile devices such as smart phones or tablets in some smaller cases. In both cases, the common mechanism for accessing these building controls is a cloud computing platforms that allows secured access.
Intelligence in buildings has even advanced so far that it is even being seen in many more modern residential homes
 
Source : En3

Sustainable Green Design Features
Yet another major frontier of modern building innovation is the move towards more energy efficient green technologies that allow many modern commercial buildings to save on energy through more efficient use, or do this and also create their own energy through clever construction extras.
A good example of the first of these developments would be materials innovations that conserve coolness or heat at a much better rate than was previously possible, use electricity saving long lasting lighting or possibly synchronize their electricity use so that the high costs of powering up lighting, heating and cooling systems can be minimized. In some cases, the very design of a commercial construction creates spaces in which the heating, cooling and electrical needs of one area can be applied to another without extending power use.
With regards to the second major innovation, many modern buildings are actually being created with their own power systems right inside them. This can be something as small as intelligent elevator operating systems that actually produce a certain percentage of the electricity need to run the constant up and down movement of the lifts, or this energy producing technology can include far more complex systems that generate a large percentage of a commercial building's power use through solar arrays, geothermal systems (where geographically acceptable) and wind or water power. The underlying principle is one of meshing a building with the geological or climatological characteristics of its surrounding geography to extract clean, renewable energy in some way.
Moving beyond energy savings and power generation, a key fundamental characteristic of many newly built and highly eco-friendly buildings is access to more information than ever. By this we mean that the computer monitoring systems already mentioned earlier above are directed with energy efficiency and green friendliness in mind to give building inhabitants access to dozens or even hundreds of minute details about where electricity is being used, what purpose it serves there and if it can be shut off without affecting anyone's needs.
One good example of this sort of system is that which is now being built into many Federal Government buildings in the U.S by corporations such as IBM through a program run by the General Services Administration. With the IBM system, Federal building users can administer a vast plethora of different energy use metrics through a central visual control panel that itself offers computer monitoring derived recommendations and suggestions for more conservative energy use.
Underlying this particular push is that essential access to information and detailed analysis that has become possible with the meshing of building management and sophisticated computer technology. This important mix, when coupled with the latest in materials science, makes modern buildings into structures of enormous sophistication when compared to their predecessors.


About the Author: Jennifer D’Angelois a small business professional who specializes in digital marketing solutions. When she’s not writing, you can find Jen assisting real estate agents in suburban Chicago. Click here to see more of Jen’s work!