Smart buildings, being considered as the fundamental infrastructure of a city, integrate smart technologies into design, management, environment, communication, energy conservation, convenience and community development. They play a pivotal role in shaping our ecosystems, beautifying our urban environment, and uplifting the quality of life. Recent studies of Macao Polytechnic University (MPU) offer insights on stakeholders’ perceived importance and acceptance of various smart and sustainable building features. The research results benefit the efficiency of building design, construction and management in a sustainable manner for the betterment of people and the planet.

Coexistence in Ecosystems through Eco-Building Design

Global smart city development drives the rise of smart buildings. Taking advantage of urban dynamics, including land development and city revitalisation, city planners incorporate innovative technologies such as big data, IoTs and AI into buildings to achieve reduction of both energy consumption and ecological impact. Eco-architecture features the transformation from the conventional and static structure to the intelligent and resource-efficient configuration. Properly-designed smart buildings enhance security, comfort and convenience, which are the prerequisites for good health, well-being, productivity and the creation of an ecology mutually beneficial to human beings and the nature, facilitating liveability and environmental sustainability.

The entire life cycle of a smart building, from construction and modification to operation and maintenance, shall be carefully planned in the early stage of design to ensure a building’s sustainability. MPU’s research studies investigated occupants and building professionals’ perceptions of the importance of smart building features to guide optimisation of management system design and technology applications in a way that achieves greater social and environmental impacts. The findings provided insights and constructive advices to the building professionals to understand occupants’ needs by showing the importance of incorporating diverse building stakeholders’ perspectives into the design process. Through continuous enhancement of design to meet human priorities alongside technical performance and compatibility, the automated, low-energy smart building system has become exemplars for sustainable urban development.

Prioritising Human Needs in Smart Building Design

Across the three research studies conducted by Professor To Wai Ming from the Faculty of Business at MPU in collaboration with the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Keele University (UK), about 1,500 building users and professional respondents were surveyed respectively. The survey results indicated that the top three smart devices that building users tended to focus more on were intelligent security systems, followed by responsive fresh air supply, as well as lifts and escalators. On the other hand, professionals gave priorities to the ease of operation, safety and recovery functions of smart devices, while convenience, ease of use and practicality became the key factors that impact on professionals’ decisions on what smart sustainable devices shall be equipped.

“Life is architecture and architecture is the mirror of life”, says the world-renowned architect Pei Ieoh Ming. Designing with human factors in mind can boost the quality of life and optimise broader environmental and social benefits. The research findings highlighted the value of stakeholder diversity in design to balance priorities in every phase taking construction cost, user experience and environmental protection into consideration.