A smart home for the new workplace

In the middle of Berlin, you’ll find a modern cube wrapped in a glass façade. This is cube berlin, a building that opened in February this year. Developed by CA Immo and with planning and consulting support from Drees & Sommer and the PropTech Thing-it, it’s certainly a stand-out piece of architecture. But the
really innovative thing about it isn’t visible from the outside. In fact, it’s literally packed with intelligence and smart technology – in full compliance with the highest safety standards. cube berlin has about 3,750 sensors and 750 beacons (transmitters with antennae running on Bluetooth Low Energy), which collect a wide range of data that enables the building to be controlled by computers.

A central control unit equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) – the so-called “Brain” – connects and processes many of the technical systems, sensors and planning, operating and user data. Once the information and data have been analysed and evaluated, it makes recommendations about how to optimize
processes within the building. For example, the system can identify unused spaces within the office and can switch off heating, ventilation, air conditioning or lighting in these areas. This helps to increase energy efficiency whilst also making the office more comfortable for users. As such, smart buildings create a fusion of technology, architecture and environment to enable a smarter future for both workers and their surroundings

Occupancy, maintenance and consumption – under precise control

The Internet of Things and smart technology are fundamentally changing the way in which buildings are managed and controlled. Examples such as cube berlin, Cologne’s The Ship and Hamburg’s Hammerbrooklyn are part of a wider trend – more and more buildings are being controlled by a digital brain
that reacts to individual needs. Sensors and data gathering enable detailed user profiles of buildings and annexes to be generated in real-time.

Intelligent, connected motion sensors send information about which rooms are being used frequently. An app displays which desks and rooms are empty when you enter a building. The heating, air conditioning and ventilation of rooms can be tailored to what is needed at any time. The temperature of a room self-regulates depending on the number of people in the room and if nobody is there, the heating level will fall. At the same time, these data sources can be connected in such a way that potential problems are signalled on dashboards or intuitive visualizations, helping identify issues before any disruption occurs. With a more targeted approach to maintenance, downtime and repairs can be kept to a minimum.

A smarter approach to the coronavirus

The trend for smart buildings shows no sign of stopping and could even receive a boost due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since sensors can recognize when people are in a room, smart technology can help to ensure that hygiene measures are being observed by checking on the number of people per room.

As well as controlling conventional building systems, customized smart buildings can also control other on-site technology like access authorization, fire alarm systems or sensors around the building. Because of this, smart buildings can significantly reduce the workload for asset management, property management and facility management.

A spotlight on the user’s needs

Because the office of the future will have to compete with working from home, it will need to take more account of users and their needs. It’s important that workers feel at ease in their office environment and enjoy coming into work, which is where technology comes in that can optimize the ventilation, room
temperature and light settings for maximum comfort. As an investor or lettings agent, it’s key to implement digital platforms across an entire portfolio instead of reaching for oneoff digital solutions for each building. And whilst it’s tempting to focus on new builds, existing properties should be assessed to see if they can be digitalized and modernized. To do this, you can use a Digital Ready Check. This employs a set of testing criteria to see if it’s possible to integrate existing buildings within a property portfolio into a property platform. The AI on the property platform then uses all the data relating to the property usage, the users and the environment to compare different occupancy, capacity utilization and land utilization variables across properties and provide recommendations on how buildings should be operated. This enables the portfolio to be continuously optimized.

Smart, joined-up analysis of operating and usage data

The building of the future won’t simply be collecting data – it will be learning from users, adapting to meet their needs and “thinking” about how to optimize things using a digital brain. Using an array of sensors and a range of planning, operating and user data, fully-integrated artificial intelligence optimizes
the office environment. As a result, AI can help reduce costs related to energy consumption, repair and maintenance, and property management.

Of course, none of this will be possible without the explicit cooperation of the tenants: firstly, because a certain amount of understanding is needed in the early stages of any pilot project where new technology is being tested, and secondly, because you need their consent in order to put sensors into
office spaces and collect data in the first place. After all, smart buildings are predicated on the idea of being able to collect data and in Germany, at least, there are strict regulations around data privacy.

Observing data privacy laws

To avoid legal problems, you need to factor in data privacy early in the planning phase and integrate it into planning across all construction projects. When it comes to new buildings, there are basically two different types of data being collected: personal and non-personal. Personal data describes data that
enables you to identify people using patterns of behaviour and because of this, it is given strong protections by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and German law. Non-personal data includes information like energy consumption data, technical data or data relating to room occupation plans.

During the planning phase, consideration needs to be given about how to prevent people from being identified through their data. Where the gathering of personal data is unavoidable – such as when controlling access to buildings – pseudonymization is a tried-and-tested method to comply with privacy laws.
And since all new buildings need to be compliant with GDPR, it’s also advisable to nominate a data protection officer and involve them during the planning process.

Ensuring cyber security

The large pools of data that buildings are now capable of generating are potential targets for cyber criminals, which means that property owners, letting agents and investors interested in intelligent buildings need to adopt a comprehensive cyber security strategy. To prevent security flaws, the safety of software and hardware needs to be addressed at the planning stage through the use of penetration tests. This involves IT experts using hacking methods to test how vulnerable the systems are to outside attacks. As well as having a firewall, an antivirus program and regular updates, it’s also advisable to divide the IT system up into network segments with clear access rights and permanent safety monitoring. A redundant IT network should be installed as a backup to avoid IT outages.

Security was an important issue for cube berlin too. Before the building was finished, Drees & Sommer helped model and test various digital hardware and software components at the oncampus demo centre at the Smart Logistics Cluster of RWTH Aachen. Penetration tests were used to test the vulnerability of
the hardware and software against hacker attacks. Since the building has been commissioned, a team from a cyber security organization has been providing digital security.