C
ities in the GCC have come to be recognised by their skylines. Silhouettes of tall buildings are the visual language of city guides and the symbols of financial booms, all built on the back of active and divergent economic activity. These skyscrapers, for good or for bad, have become landmarks of the success Gulf cities have enjoyed - complete with its ups and downs and their development has brought architects, engineers and contractors to the region as companies look to earn their super-tall credentials. While tall buildings are already among the most sophisticated built structures in the urban environment, the last decade has seen a number of advances that are gradually aiming to make such icons of the skyline smarter and more efficient. With any tall building there is the chance to multiply the advantages, or disadvantages, earned through the deployment of technology through the power of a skyscraper’s scale. “Most of the technology that we have seen applied to tall buildings that would be considered new would probably fall into the BIM category, but also the BIS systems,” says Shanghai-based Daniel Safarik, Director of the China Office for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. “I think what is starting to happen is that the conceptual model that leads up to the design and construction of a building is now gaining its own life in the [operation] of that building.” The move for greater implementation of BIS is growing put of the use of BIM, which many would regard as still emergent in the Middle East market. What this may lead to further down the line is a greater ability to provide real-time information about the environmental performance of a building and Safarik believe BIS will likely have a role to play in helping achieve that. As sensor technology improves and the ‘internet of things’ develops, what will emerge is more direct reporting of
how well building elements are actually working in real time. “Anything with an electrical pulse can and will be eventually connected to the internet” he says. “So rather than just having a detached bespoke system that says it understands the sun is now at a 70 degree angle and the temp is 40, it should lower the shade, you will progress to where it asks ‘how much has the temperature actually changed inside since?’ This is the part of the feedback loop which is largely missing from all buildings.” Getting this use of technology right can be testing and developers may be leery of the costs involved in implementation, especially if there are few regional case studies to benchmark against. Businesses are traditionally reluctant to be guinea pigs and may be reluctant to spend big on systems that may not be guaranteed to save energy. “I really do think that is the golden egg: optimising energy performance,” says Safarik. “Because while there are inherent benefits with stacking floors on top of each other and maximising the amount of real-estate on a single parcel of land - which is why tall buildings exist - I do think people tend to over sell the sustainable benefits of skyscrapers. “I think it’s important to make the point that a lot of the things that are ‘smart’, which building designers have been using for centuries, have been forgotten in modern times. All have been abandoned in favour a of a slick glass enclosed buildings and this is especially true of skyscrapers, which can consume an enormous amount of energy and when done with a lack of attention to the urban context are actually pretty dumb buildings.” To avoid this kind of architectural white elephant it’s important that buildings are connected to their environment through more than just wi-fi and fibre optics. As towers become larger and more complex, they contain more people, all of whom make demands upon local services, including power, water and transport.
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