Chapter 1

What Is a Smart

Building?

Brief History

Smart buildings, or at least discussion of the concept, originated in the early
1980s. In 1984, for instance, aNew York Timesarticle described real estate
developers creating “a new generation of buildings that almost think for
themselves...called intelligent buildings.” Such a building was defined as “a
marriage of two technologies—old-fashioned building management and
telecommunications.”

©2010 Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.
Doi:10.1016/B978-1-85617-653-8.00001-