Technology + Built Environment
The smart buildings industry did something genuinely impressive over the last decade. Faced with fragmented supply chains, overlapping scopes, and technologies falling between trades, it created a delivery construct that mostly worked. The Master Systems Integrator brought clarity to capital projects. It defined accountability, reduced chaos, and made it possible to deliver increasingly complex smart […]
There’s a moment in every smart building project when the confetti settles and reality walks in. The app works. The dashboards load. Then, within weeks, the control room drifts back to radio calls and spreadsheets. The gap isn’t technological, it’s operational. That’s why the most valuable deliverable on any PropTech programme isn’t a feature list, […]
The Single Pane of Glass concept in smart buildings, which purports a unified system management interface, frequently falls short, offering complexity and inflexibility instead of simplicity. Integration of diverse systems is challenging, often creating more problems than solutions. The industry must pivot towards a hybrid approach, utilizing specialized, interconnected microservices to truly realize smart building potential. Matthew Marson, a leader in technology and sustainability, will explore these issues in his monthly column.