Authors
Karthik Mallikarjun Gunderi, Deerns Nederland B.V | LinkedIn profile
Stefanie Doljé, Deerns Nederland B.V | LinkedIn profile
(Note: Opinions in the articles are of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the EU)
Buildings are a critical part of our built environment and often remain in use for over 50 years. While the structural shell persists, the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems typically have a shorter lifespan of 15 to 25 years. Layered on top of this are ‘smart’ components—such as sensors, controls, and software platforms— which can evolve at an even faster pace, often requiring upgrades every few years. As a result, designing and operating buildings involves more than just bricks and mortar; it must include a strategy for integrating rapidly changing technologies.
This need is underscored by broader societal challenges. Climate change and network congestion create mounting pressure for more energy-efficient and adaptable infrastructures, while building occupants demand higher levels of comfort, safety, and digital integration. However, implementing ‘smart’ features without a clear plan can result in fragmented systems and rising costs. A building may become technologically outdated prematurely if its underlying infrastructure is not designed to support future smart solutions. Ensuring a ‘smart-ready’ foundation from the outset—whether during initial construction or major refurbishment—reduces disruptions and costs throughout the building’s lifecycle.
This article explores a holistic approach to smart building design, with a particular emphasis on a methodology that guides building owners and stakeholders from vision to implementation. By combining stakeholder workshops and a Smart Building QuickScan, this approach aligns building upgrades with regulatory requirements, occupant needs, and long-term sustainability goals.
Rapid technological advancements, growing sustainability requirements, and an increasingly tech-savvy occupant base have all transformed expectations for the built environment. Where buildings once primarily focused on structural integrity and functional utility, they are now evaluated against broader measures such as occupant well-being, energy efficiency, digital connectivity, and long-term resilience. Occupants demand more comfortable, flexible spaces, and policymakers mandate higher efficiency standards, particularly in response to increasing climate challenges. These developments highlight the need for a smarter approach to building design—one that can adapt to both present requirements and future innovations.
In the process of building such tailored solutions, despite growing awareness of the value of smart building systems, the concept of ‘smartness’ is often mistaken for a binary state—either a building is smart, or it is not. In reality, smart building capabilities exist on a broad spectrum. Some structures may only feature limited digital controls for HVAC or lighting, whereas others integrate advanced data analytics, occupant feedback loops and automated processes to optimise nearly every aspect of operations. This spectrum highlights the importance of evaluating and planning for different levels of smartness throughout a building’s lifecycle.
Overcoming the challenges of rapid technological change, evolving regulations, and rising occupant expectations requires more than just adding a series of smart gadgets. A holistic approach integrating intelligent systems into the broader building lifecycle ensures that upgrades align with both current needs and long-term goals. This approach starts by engaging all stakeholders—owners, facility managers, occupants, and technical experts—in a collaborative process to define what ‘smart’ means for the specific project. At the core of this methodology are Smart Building Workshops, which encourage direct dialogue among stakeholders.
In these workshops, participants work together to identify the building’s particular use cases, user requirements, and sustainability targets. Company-specific journeys, technological needs, and case studies are detailed in this session, along with their impact on various stakeholders. Pain points and ambitions are stated and prioritised. The outcome is a shared vision that places the people at the heart of the design, extending beyond conventional performance metrics such as energy efficiency to encompass comfort, digital integration, and future adaptability. To realise this vision and prevent redundant systems or unnecessary expenses, a Smart Building QuickScan is conducted as the next step.
Figure 1: Smart Building Workshop session (Deerns).
The Smart Building QuickScan provides building owners and managers with a fast yet comprehensive way to evaluate a property’s current level of smartness. Inspired by both regulatory trends and evolving occupant needs, this QuickScan has been designed to deliver actionable insights in a matter of days. It eliminates the need for cumbersome calculations or extensive modelling, instead focusing on structured observations, direct stakeholder engagement, and clear outcomes. By emphasising speed and simplicity, the QuickScan helps owners decide where best to invest limited time and resources, particularly given the rapid pace of technological change in the built environment.
To ensure the QuickScan aligns with real-world requirements, research was conducted on existing certifications and assessments, while feedback was gathered from clients on common pain points. The tool was improved within the Brains4Building initiative, where 39 partners collaborated to establish a solid foundation. Participants included knowledge institutes, installation companies, energy consultants, platform and interface developers, building owners and managers, technology suppliers, industry associations, and other subject matter experts. The tool has also developed to comply with regulations such as the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI). The SRI is derived from the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) to leverage smart technology to improve the energy performance of buildings in Europe. Not only the SRI, but other components of the EPBD regulations stress the need of using smart technology to support energy efficiency as well. The directive promotes data collection and sharing, increased automation, and system integration to enhance operations. This has led to higher real estate standards and an increased number of smart-ready buildings by design.
Research for the Smart Building QuickScan identified six primary domains, each representing a key aspect of building performance and occupant value, as outlined below:
Domain 1. HVAC, covering heating, domestic hot water, cooling, and ventilation—critical for indoor comfort and energy efficiency.
Domain 2. Health and Wellbeing, encompassing indoor air quality, natural light, and occupant comfort, all essential for a safe and pleasant environment.
Domain 3: Energy and Environment, covering lighting, electrical systems, EV charging infrastructure, and broader environmental factors.
Domain 4: Control and Safety, examining how building systems are managed, safeguarded, and supported by lifts and other critical equipment.
Domain 5: Connectivity, assessing the digital backbone that enables real-time monitoring and data exchange.
Domain 6: Data and User Experience, assessing data collection, analytics, and occupant-facing interfaces designed to enhance engagement and productivity.
Figure 2: Images from the Deerns Smart Building QuickScan. Left: Spider diagram of the score per domain for the current status and the smart ambition of a test case. Right: Cost of technology and its implementation per domain for the same test case.
Within each domain, there are smart features which are evaluated for the building. To determine whether a feature qualifies as ‘smart,’ it must meet at least one of the following six guidelines:
enables energy savings
improves time efficiency
enhances the user or stakeholder experience
Integrates services or technologies to simplify facility management
represents a state-of-the-art iteration of the technology; and/or
merges additional features while maintaining cost parity or reducing costs compared to alternative solutions.
These six guidelines help determine whether each proposed measure genuinely enhances a building’s performance, functionality, or occupant well-being.
Another core principle of the QuickScan is ensuring clarity in how different aspects of building performance interconnect. While many assessment frameworks collapse findings into a single overarching score, the QuickScan deliberately reports results for each domain individually. This avoids masking a building’s strengths or weaknesses, behind a combined metric. It enables stakeholders to identify precisely where improvements are needed. A building might excel in energy efficiency but fall behind in occupant connectivity or data security. By maintaining a domain-based perspective, owners and managers can allocate resources more effectively, targeting the areas that align with their strategic ambitions or regulatory obligations.
Ultimately, the Smart Building QuickScan serves as an essential stepping stone for developing a roadmap toward a more intelligent, adaptable building. Its emphasis on speed, transparency, and domain-specific clarity ensures that stakeholders can confidently prioritise interventions that yield the greatest impact on occupant satisfaction, operational efficiency, and long-term resilience in an ever-evolving technology landscape.
With this holistic approach, a smart baseline for the building can be created. To translate this into a tangible design, the outcomes from the Smart Building Workshop and the Smart Building QuickScan are integrated, aligning occupant needs with available technology. Specific building interventions are identified, with cost estimations and a business case that extend beyond financial considerations.
Smart buildings are often associated with new developments in real estate portfolios. However, most real estate portfolios consist of long-term assets, making the evaluation of existing properties essential. A Smart Building QuickScan was conducted across multiple office buildings in Europe. The outcome was a clearly defined smart status for the entire portfolio, with distinct goals for high-end assets and basic assets alike.
With a clear smart building blueprint for the entire portfolio, asset decarbonisation, data management, user experience, and cybersecurity requirements could be met while enhancing asset value.
More specifically, asset decarbonisation involved:
compiling and monitoring energy performance and operational data
implementing energy management systems to autonomously operate and optimise the building.
The data supported building users by enabling:
dynamic heating and cooling adjustments based on occupancy patterns
predictive maintenance for optimised system performance
space management informed by usage patterns.
Designing buildings that are both resilient and responsive to future needs demands more than one-off technological additions. A truly smart building must adapt to evolving occupant expectations, regulatory requirements, and the rapid advancement of digital systems. As the approach described above illustrates, the foundation of such adaptability lies in a holistic, user-centric methodology that brings together technical expertise, clear assessments, and stakeholder collaboration. By focusing on long-term resilience—through smart-ready infrastructure, flexible system design and robust data governance—building owners can minimise the disruption and costs associated with frequent upgrades.
At the core of this strategy is the Smart Building QuickScan, which delivers a clear, multi-domain assessment of a building’s position on the smart capability spectrum. By identifying strengths and addressing gaps, the QuickScan enables stakeholders to implement meaningful interventions—from enhancing occupant comfort to optimising energy consumption—while maintaining a focus on broader sustainability objectives. As technologies evolve and regulations become more stringent, this step-by-step approach to smartness ensures that building assets remain adaptable and cost-efficient—preserving both their value and their ability to meet changing societal demands.
