PROSPECTS OF INTELLIGENT BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Construction industry is one of the major sources of economic growth, development and socio economic advances in a country, naturally accountable for the entire infrastructure in any given place, for generating employment for trained personnel and thousands of unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers. Buildings account for 41% of the total energy consumed in any given sector and Pakistan is no exception. With the continuous increase in demand and the increased tariff prices of the available electricity it is becoming increasingly difficult for investors and owners to be able to maintain their facilities to optimal standards. With the advancement in technology, exposure and increased awareness, people have a continual increased demand of maintaining a certain type of lifestyle which is extremely difficult to be provided in the current conditions of the country. The biggest challenge today faced by any building owner in Pakistan is to provide an uninterrupted supply of electricity with minimal billing and proper metering in order to attract maximum clientele and to maintain an up-kept ad safe building environment to satisfy the current strain of occupants. It is important to manage the energy consumption and therefore the energy prices for any building, be it high rise or low rise, residential or office buildings. It is therefore extremely important to cater for such provisions in buildings which would be able to address all the above issues in order to increase the client attraction, and to push Pakistani construction industry forward as far as technological advancements are concerned. Once these basic issues are addressed there will be increased competition paving the way for better standards in construction, increased interest by the foreign investors in the local industry and an overall win-win situation for the local public. For this purpose the topic of intelligent buildings was explored as there is a budding trend towards conserving energy, providing life safety and optimal facility management and improving subsystems in the buildings that are being recently constructed. Although it is only just the very beginning, with the right amount of effort both in the field and in the class room, the implementation of IB technologies in Pakistan will enable us to come to par with other nations like India and China in our building sector. For the purpose of this thesis an extensive literature review was carried out, including books, journals and online publications, furthermore interviews were carried out with the experts on intelligent building technologies to understand and establish the market trends and requirements locally