Smart - The most misunderstood word in real estate?

Marble from the staircase to the Boston Public Library.

Everywhere in real estate you hear people discussing, often bragging, about ‘Smart’ buildings. ‘Our buildings are smart’, ‘we have the smartest buildings’ ‘let me show you how smart our building is’. And so on.

Don’t be taken in.

Because the foundational point to understand about ‘Smart Buildings’ is that …..

….. it’s not about the building.

Now, to be clear, having a building be smart, in a technological sense, is vitally important. Certainly do not invest in a building that isn’t already smart, or at least has the potential to be made smart. But ‘smart’ on its own is now necessary but not sufficient.

Smart buildings tend to be awash with obligatory dashboards, but these are often seldom looked at, and the data poorly analysed. Does a tree make a sound if nobody is there to hear it?

Smart buildings also tend to boast about their accreditations. We are gold this, and platinum that. But often these awards are awarded either before anyone actually occupies the building, based on unrealised designs, are ‘pay to play’ and/or the result of measurements taken at a particular moment in time. 

The fact that this building performed to this level, on this day or month, really is not telling us very much.

And we have all heard of the buildings that worked brilliantly in theory, but not in practice.

Starting with the technology is not Smart, it’s Dumb.

In reality there is only one place to start to be ‘Smart’’ ….

You have to start with human needs and work back to the technology required to satisfy them.

Ideally one should be designing a desired customer and user experience before even thinking about the technological ‘smarts’. One should be viewing the real estate as the output, not the input. This relates back to those Brand values we’ve discussed elsewhere. Where we are developing what it is our particular Brand stands for. Where we are co-creating, in multi-functional teams, what it is that we want to achieve. At a human level, for our customers:

So…

What is the experience of our building? 

How does it feel to be in our building? 

What human skills do we want to catalyse? 

Who is this building designed for? 

What will this building enable our customers to do? 

And what can be done in our building better than anywhere else?

This last point is absolutely crucial. If our building is not the best place to do X, then why would anyone come to it? Wouldn’t they go to wherever is the best place for them to do whatever it is they wish or need to do.

It is a brutal question, but reiterating the point that post covid we have realised we really do not need an office, it has to be addressed. Even the smartest of smart buildings, at a technological level, will prove to be extremely dumb in reality if it cannot attract customers. No one will come to your building just because it is smart.

Necessary but not sufficient.

We have to have a laser like focus on the real meaning of smart in a real estate context:

’Smart’ buildings serve the people in a building.

‘Smart’ buildings improve the day to day enjoyment of spaces.

‘Smart’ buildings HAVE TO enable happy, healthy and productive people.

The bottom line is that ‘Smart’ buildings improve the lives of people. If they do not, they’re not smart.

You will have guessed by now that being smart is, once again, a human + machine endeavour. We have to start with the experience we are trying to create, that meets the wants, needs and desires of our existing or targeted customers, but then move on to creating and curating the technological infrastructure of hardware, software and services that will enable it.

Investment into ‘smart building’ technology continues apace, and will likely do so for many years to come, because we ARE demanding more and more from our buildings. We are seeking user experiences that really do redefine what it means to be in a ‘smart’ building, and there is a lag between desire and ability. We want sustainable buildings, that look after the health and wellbeing of people, but also enable them to be as productive as possible and are also a pleasure to be in. 

Being net zero and better than ever before is a tall order. 

So it’s no surprise to see big money going into developing digital twins, virtual power plants, IoT connected heat pumps, smart glass, occupancy and security tech, and other products and services. And this is a very good thing.

We just need to never forget the purpose of all of this - to create a better built environment. For us humans.

That’s what ‘Smart’ means. Or should do.