Tomorrow’s buildings will be connected buildings: entire houses will be remotely controlled using smartphones. The major players in the digital world, such as Apple and Google, are coming up with increasingly advanced home automation innovations that will make our daily lives easier. Between offering control over energy consumption, integrating systems for improved security and comfort, and offering new services, what are the areas of focus for connected buildings?
A connected building that makes daily life easier
The point of connected buildings is that they can be managed from a distance; eventually these buildings will be able to interact with their surroundings (nearby commercial or residential buildings, public services, etc.), requiring home automation solutions. When it comes to the various connected gadgets that are meant to improve daily life, energy is the primary concern for smart buildings. Conserving energy, efficient consumption, and better insulation…these are the main innovation challenges. Eco-neighbourhoods have understood this and use digital innovation in cities to put people first. This was achieved thanks to innovations such as Esmart, an interactive tablet for monitoring energy consumption that was installed in the Eikenott housing units in Switzerland.
At the same time, the teams in charge of R&D are concerned about the issue of security. When home automation is discussed, this is often one of the major worries, and it is central to connected buildings. Currently, the different solutions being explored include securing sensors and protecting data through anonymisation.
New services for tomorrow
According to Hervé Defarge, manager of the monitoring cockpit at Bouygues Energies & Services, the building of tomorrow will be “sustainable, connected, and smart.” Indeed, it will have to adapt to keep pace with the transformation of an increasingly connected and nomadic society by developing new services, for instance via systems that learn independently. New services have already been imagined, but they still need to be improved. For example, electric mobility and optimising vehicle recharging through projects such as Eco2charge, or interfaces such as Erlenapp that make life in the neighbourhood easier.
