Living buildings

To coincide with World Green Building Week 2016, Philips Lighting launches an in-depth report – “Illuminated, integrated and intelligent: Reinventing the workplace.”

The report explores how trends in the Internet of Things, connectivity, and materials and social sciences are driving new developments in smart building design, workplace flexibility, and connected facility management. In a series of articles Smart Buildings picks up on the key topics driving change, starting with "Living buildings."

Download part 1 - Living buildings

Find out more about WGBW

Net zero buildings will be a defining contribution in our efforts to tackle climate change."

Terri Wills,

World Green Building Council
In addition to energy efficiency,
future office designs support
employee health and happiness.
Green thinking is good for the employees, good for business, and good for the environment.

Sustainability
the triple bottom line

According to the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, “Sustainable development involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity. Companies aiming for sustainability need to perform not against a single, financial bottom line but against the triple bottom line.”

As a result, forward-thinking developers, owners, and tenants are treating sustainability as a given, and are adopting a broader vision of integrating office buildings into the environment, using nature and organic design principles as inspiration.

Biophilic design is catching on, strengthening the bond between humans, technology, and the natural world.

Net zero by 2050

Buildings contribute as much as 40% of the world’s CO2. With this in mind, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) recently announced Advancing Net Zero, a project to ensure all buildings are net zero energy and net zero carbon by 2050.

How important is the net zero project? Very. Terri Wills, CEO of WorldGBC, has said, “The success of our ambitions to keep global warming to within 1.5 to 2 degrees will depend on our ability to advance net zero buildings."

Buildings contribute 40% of the world's CO2

Possibly the

greenest office in the world

Innovative office buildings, such as The Edge, in Amsterdam, demonstrate how LED-based connected lighting systems can provide the foundation for organizations to achieve their performance targets. These lighting systems readily tie into the building’s IT and management networks, offering a platform for creating a “digital canopy” to deliver an entire range of advanced applications.

Integrated sensors provide rich data on occupancy patterns, energy usage, and various aspects of the indoor environment, such as light and CO2 levels, temperature, and humidity. Building managers can use this data to adjust and fine-tune the delivery of resources to support sustainability goals.

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LED-based connected lighting systems offer a platform for creating a “digital canopy” for advanced applications.

Our building skins should be more similar to human skin"

Doris Kim Sung,

Assistant Professor, USC School of Architecture
With monitoring and knowledge of usage patterns and preferences,
smart buildings can anticipate and automatically satisfy employee needs.

New technology

creating smart spaces

Smart buildings are now beginning to use different kinds of surfaces that react to the environment and manage themselves without intervention.

Architect Doris Kim Sung has developed thermal bimetals, combinations of two different metals that work together to regulate heat, light levels and ventilation. These bimetals require no controls and no energy.

Materials scientists Troy Townsend and Edward Foos have engineered a spray-on nanocrystal coating that can control how much light or heat passes through it. When applied to the outsides of windows, the nanocrystals are invisible to building occupants, allowing office spaces to retain natural light while remaining cool.

Learn more about new building technologies from Erik Ubels, CTO of devloper OVG.

Watch video

Doris Kim Sung, DOSU studioarchitecture

The greenest developer

Find out how Owen Zachariasse, Manager of Innovation and Sustainability at Delta, is working towards the goal of being ‘the greenest developer’.

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The meaning of greening

With the continued spotlight on the need to create a sustainable built environment, discover what leading proponents from the green buildings sector had to say.

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Trends creating a great place to work

Discover how intelligent workplace design is shaping new ways of working, keeping employees engaged, active, healthy and happy, and making businesses more productive.

Find out more

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Living buildings

Sustainability
the triple bottom line