Guest editorial

Citation

Elmualim, A. (2009), "Guest editorial", Facilities, Vol. 27 No. 11/12. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2009.06927kaa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Facilities, Volume 27, Issue 11/12

Facilities management as a profession is rapidly evolving and the role of facilities managers in delivering responsive, efficient and effective assets and facilities is widely documented. Facilities management as profession has widely adopted information and communications technologies (ICT) to meet the needs and requirements of organisations and their stakeholders, including employees and the wider community. No doubt the increasing development in these ICT and automation technologies has impacted many industries and the wider society. With the emerging and ever evolving concept of “intelligent buildings”, these ICT and automation technologies provide a way forward for facilities managers to meet the aims of their organisations. Together with the sustainability pressure, the development and operation of intelligent buildings will continue to dominate the arena of the facilities management profession and the built environment as whole for many years to come. Despite the plethora of definitions and interpretations of the intelligent building concept, there is still a consensus that intelligent buildings provide value for money and they are technologically equipped to facilitate their effective and efficient operation.

This special issue of Facilities brings together the current research work of many academic and industrial researchers across Europe in this fascinating area: intelligent buildings and their operation. The papers published in this issue were initially presented at the CIB 70 International Conference in Facilities Management, 16-18 June 2008, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. The papers discuss various aspects of the application of emerging ICT and automation and discuss this concept of intelligent buildings within the context of facilities management. It is hoped this special issue will contribute to advancing the debate on intelligent buildings and their operation and its practical implications for the built environment as whole and facilities management profession in particular. In addition to this special issue, another outcome of the presentations and discussion that took place at the CIB 70 conference was to establish a CIB Working Group for Intelligent Buildings and Computer-aided Facilities Management Tools within a facilities management context. By publishing this issue we hope to galvanize the efforts, help steer the debate and create synergy for sharing knowledge and experience regarding the advancement of these concepts amongst the facilities management profession.

Abbas ElmualimThe School of Construction Management and Engineering, University of Reading, Reading, UK