Green construction, sustainability, refurbishment, and adaptable room types are key drivers for the construction market moving forward, according to new research.
The trends are outlined in the BSRIA’s newly-published White Paper, Future Building Trends – Impacts – Solutions, which explores the biggest and most-relevant changes in buildings now and over the next 10 years.
It also looks at the impact this will have on the construction industry, and what products and services will be required to meet these demands.
Although the document has a North American slant, many of the trends are likely to be seen across Europe.
New challenges will undoubtedly appear, not least the need to understand how new building designs work and to understand the challenge of more-complex building systems. There is a need for smarter, integrated construction practices and the industry needs to develop new partnership ecosystems to address this
The paper examined how buildings can improve productivity and wellbeing – touching on all aspects of building design, construction, use, and maintenance. Also, it looks at the relationship of buildings with their immediate environment as well as their connection to the wider world.
Author, Jeremy Towler, senior manager for energy and smart technologies at BSRIA Worldwide Market Intelligence, said: “In relation to drivers and trends – green construction and sustainability of construction will increasingly affect the planning and design of buildings within the next few years.
“While green design will be easiest to implement for new construction, it is the retrofit and refurbishment of existing buildings that represents the biggest challenge, the most-pressing need, and the biggest market potential.”
Julia Evans, chief executive of BSRIA, added: “Buildings that adapt to people, rather than the other way around, will be a major evolution and will lead to more-productive environments, a higher level of satisfaction and comfort for occupants, and the ability, for example, to avoid conditioning unoccupied spaces.
“The advance of the Internet of Things (IoT) is also a major trend in building management. A growing abundance of data will lead to new services and solutions. However, there is a risk that the speed of change may create uncertainty – which can lead to hesitation and false starts.
With increasingly-complex buildings and the use of more technology to run them more efficiently, the whole service and maintenance of buildings could change and a new type of company evolve
“There is a trend towards home-working, which will cause a reduction in the demand for commercial building space and more remote working and desk sharing to accommodate the way people will work in the future will result in the need for more-flexible work space and an increase in the occupied density of commercial buildings.”
Commenting on the impact on the HVAC equipment and controls industry, she added: “New challenges will undoubtedly appear, not least the need to understand how new building designs work and to understand the challenge of more-complex building systems. There is a need for smarter, integrated construction practices and the industry needs to develop new partnership ecosystems to address this.
“Regarding new technologies – there will be increased uptake of building data capture, energy data analytics and an increasing proportion of applications going to the ‘cloud’. The trend toward equipment suppliers offering smart products is expected to increase rapidly with eventually most products connected to, or residing in, the ‘cloud’.
“There is a growing need for devices to be interconnected and converged onto common platforms and networks. This is driving demand for new skills, particularly in the area of IT and communications. Cybersecurity needs to be improved and has moved rapidly up the agenda. It represents both a threat to development of the building controls industry and a new business opportunity.”
Smart technology, in the form of self-learning and self-diagnosing products, is emerging, as well as software-based analytics, all of which are setting the industry on the path towards increasing artificial intelligence and new business opportunities
And, offering advice to equipment manufacturers, she said: “With increasingly-complex buildings and the use of more technology to run them more efficiently, the whole service and maintenance of buildings could change and a new type of company evolve.
“The whole-lifecycle-cost approach will become more popular. Building controls suppliers must have professional knowledge and competency in energy management, being able to predict building energy expense and remove risk.
“Smart technology, in the form of self-learning and self-diagnosing products, is emerging, as well as software-based analytics, all of which are setting the industry on the path towards increasing artificial intelligence and new business opportunities.
“Clearly, there is a lot changing in this industry and ‘the players’ need to be aware of this and decide how they will respond. They need to evolve, move up the value chain, embrace new technologies, develop the necessary processes, and build the necessary skills.”
To read the full report, click here.
