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This paper examines the use of intelligent technologies in buildings and whether the use of smart technologies impacts the circular economy performance of buildings in terms of energy and water consumption, their marginal cost and the management decision time and quality, for building management companies.

The study is initiated through the detailed build-up of the proposition that employs a systematic literature review and adopts the case study research design to make a cross-case analysis of the information extracted from data. The data are derived from the operating costs of two buildings in which most advanced smart technologies are used in Cape Town and interviews with their facility managers. These data provide two research case studies. The results of the investigation are then analysed and linked back to the literature.

The results of the research suggest that the implementation of smart technologies to create intelligent infrastructure is beneficial to the circular economy performance of buildings and the time taken for management decisions. The results of the study have proven that the impact of smart technologies on the circular economy performance of buildings is positive, as it lowers the cost of utilities and decreases the time required for management decisions.

The research reported in this paper is exploratory, and due to its limited sample size, its findings may not be statistically generalizable to the population of high-occupancy buildings in Cape Town, which incorporate smart infrastructure technologies within their building management systems (BMSs). Also, the empirical data collected were limited to the views and opinions of the interviewees, and the secondary data were obtained from the selected buildings.

The findings suggest that investment in smart technologies within buildings is of significant value and will improve the circular economy performance of buildings in terms of low energy and water use, and effective management decisions.

The results imply that there would be more effective maintenance decisions taken by facilities managers, which will enable the maintenance of equipment to be properly monitored, problems with the building services and equipment to be identified in good time and in improved well-being and user satisfaction.

The study provides evidence to support the concept that advanced smart technologies boost performance, the time required for management decisions and that they enable circularity in buildings. It supports the proposition that investment in the more advanced smart technologies in buildings has more positive rewards.

The smart building concept has gained prominence in the construction sector during the past decade. In the United Arab Emirates, although smart building technology has been widely adopted in different building sectors, no empirical studies have examined the applicability of the smart buildings concept in prison facilities. The current study aims to understand the current status of prison buildings in the UAE and the challenges faced by the prison industry to implement new smart technology.

This study involved a semi-structured interview consisting of 14 participants who were interviewed face-to-face about their opinion about the objectives of the study. The interviewees were experts from the prison and construction industry of the UAE working at the top management level. Mind-maps were created from the thematic data using Nvivo software.

The results demonstrated that among current issues prevailing in prisons, overcrowding was regarded as the most severe issue. Additionally, in most cases, there is no systemic classification of inmates. Concerning the potential challenges in the implementation of smart technologies in the prison buildings, being too old and outdated of prison buildings are a significant concern, followed by a substantial gap in the approval system of budget to purchase new smart technology.

The findings of this study are of vital importance and help to identify potential challenges involved in the implementation of smart technologies in prison buildings that should be taken into consideration before selecting any new smart technology.

Facilities management (FM) activities affect citizens’ health and safety, long-term urban environmental sustainability and the relationships between the built and natural environments of cities. This study aims to comprehend the status of smart FM tools application, how they are used to improve the delivery of FM services and the barriers to their implementation.

To investigate the current smart solutions that leverage the quality of FM service, a case study based on the FM practice in Hong Kong was carried out. The case study was conducted in two phases of data acquisition based on a qualitative research methodology. After conducting in-depth interviews to determine the application of smart FM tools in different types of properties and to identify the initiatives and barriers to smart FM tool application, three workshops were conducted to validate the findings and further investigate the influence of FM professionals on smart FM tools application in Hong Kong.

The findings of the case study revealed, firstly, that four types of smart FM tools – user-centric, safety and hygiene, maintenance and sustainability-oriented – are used to assist the delivery of FM services. Secondly, smart FM tools are shown to be useful in assisting FM activities. Thirdly, the existing barriers to smart FM tool application manifest differently in shopping malls, office buildings and residential buildings. Fourthly, smart FM tools are used to address the four attributes of user needs: comfort, health and wellbeing, convenience and information to occupants.

The value of this study lies in its focus on the industry level (FM industry) and the application process of smart FM tools in different types of property, revealing the benefits, initiatives and barriers to their future application. This study provides a comprehensive picture of the current status and elaborates the barriers to smart FM tool application, which will help FM practitioners to make strategic decisions on selecting and developing smart FM tools. Also, this study will facilitate smart FM tool application policy development.

To achieve the building and property by 2050, decarbonisation goals will now require a significant increase in the rate of improvement in the energy performance of buildings. Occupant behaviour is crucial. This study seeks to guide the application of smart building technology in existing building stock to support improved building energy performance and occupant comfort.

This study follows a logical partitioning approach to the development of a schema for building energy performance and occupant comfort. A review of the literature is presented to identify the characteristics that label and structure the problem elements. A smart building technology framework is overlaid on the schema. The framework is then applied to configure and demonstrate an actual technology implementation for existing building stock.

The developed schema represents the key components and relationships of building energy performance when combined with occupant comfort. This schema provides a basis for the definition of a smart building technologies framework for existing building stock. The study demonstrates a viable configuration of available smart building technologies that couple building energy performance with occupant comfort in the existing building stock. Technical limitations (such as relatively simple building management control regimes) and pragmatic limitations (such as change management issues) are noted for consideration.

This is the first development of a schema to represent how building energy performance can be coupled with occupant comfort in existing building stock using smart building technologies. The demonstration study applies one of many possible technology configurations currently available, and promotes the use of open source applications with push-pull functionality. The schema provides a common basis and guide for future studies.

This study investigates the underlying indicators for measuring the smartness of buildings in the construction industry; where the Smart Building Technology (SBT) concept (which incorporates elements of the Zero Energy Building (NZEB) concept) could ensure efficient energy consumption and high performance of buildings.

An overarching post-positivist and empirical epistemological design was adopted to analyze primary quantitative data collected via a structured questionnaire survey with 227 respondents. The mean ranking analysis and one-sample t-test were employed to analyse data.

Research findings revealed that the level of knowledge of smart building indicators is averagely high in the Ghanaian construction industry. Future research is required to evaluate the awareness level of Smart Building Technologies (SBTs) by construction professionals and identify barriers to its adoption.

A blueprint guidance model (consisting of significant indicators for measuring building smartness) was developed to help improve building performance and inform policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the awareness level of smart building technologies (SBTs) among construction professionals in developing countries such as Ghana, and identify the key factors that have the significant capability of influencing the awareness level significantly.

Data were collected through questionnaire survey from 227 construction design team and project managers in the Ghanaian construction industry. Descriptive analysis and multivariate analysis using multiple regression were used to analyze the data.

Averagely low level of SBTs awareness was observed to exist among professionals in the construction industry of Ghana. The study further revealed “training programs” by organizations and “individual knowledge” as the key factors capable of significantly influencing the level of SBTs awareness in the construction industry of developing countries, particularly Ghana.

This paper identified training programs by organizations and individual knowledge as the two key factors having significant capability of influencing the SBTs awareness in the construction industry of developing countries such Ghana. The two factors can be incorporated in policymaking process via considerations to help create SBTs awareness, such as encouragement of continuous professional development toward smart building concept in relation to construction sustainability.

This study conceptualizes from a systematic professional perspective and provides empirical evidence on the key significant factors capable of influencing the awareness of SBTs in the developing countries such as Ghana.

The necessity for sustainable development and high building performance has led to the adoption of smart building technologies (SBTs) in the construction community. The SBTs adoption has been hindered in many different parts of the world due to several constraints underpinning the project management processes to help adopt SBTs. This paper presents a systematic review of relevant literature on barriers underpinning the project management processes on the adoption of SBTs.

This paper presents a systematic review of relevant literature on barriers to technology adoption published in academic peer-reviewed journals and conference papers. The study adopted a systematic review technique on 56 relevant articles and conference papers in relation to barriers to adoption of technology, and barrier frequency was employed to select the most reported barriers.

The study revealed the most reported barriers underpinning project management process towards SBTs adoption, which include lengthy approval process for new SBTs, structure and organization of the construction industry, higher cost for smart construction practices and materials, unfamiliarity with smart building technology and technical difficulty during construction process.

To both the industry practitioners and policymakers, this review provides a valuable reference during implementation. Also, to the academic scholars on embarking on further empirical studies, the developed checklist of SBTs barriers could be important and useful.

This study has contributed to the knowledge of barriers underpinning the project management processes on SBTs adoption by identifying the most reported barriers in literature.

Digital twins provide enormous opportunities for smart buildings. However, an up-to-date intellectual landscape to understand and identify the major opportunities of digital twins for smart buildings is still not enough. This study, therefore, performs an up-to-date comprehensive literature review to identify the major opportunities of digital twins for smart buildings.

Scientometric and content analysis are utilised to comprehensively evaluate the intellectual landscape of the general knowledge of digital twins for smart buildings.

The study uncovered 24 opportunities that were further categorised into four major opportunities: efficient building performance (smart “building” environment), efficient building process (smart construction site environment), information efficiency and effective user interactions. The study further identified the limitations of the existing studies and made recommendations for future research in the methodology adopted and the research domain. Five research domains were considered for future research, namely “real-time data acquisition, processing and storage”, “security and privacy issues”, “standardised and domain modelling”, “collaboration between the building industry and the digital twin developers” and “skilled workforce to enable a seamless transition from theory to practice”.

All stakeholders, including practitioners, policymakers and researchers in the field of “architecture, engineering, construction and operations” (AECO), may benefit from the findings of this study by gaining an in-depth understanding of the opportunities of digital twins and their implementation in smart buildings in the AECO industry. The limitations and the possible research directions may serve as guidelines for streamlining the practical adoption and implementation of digital twins for smart buildings.

This study adopted scientometric and content analysis to comprehensively assess the intellectual landscape of relevant literature and identify four major opportunities of digital twins for smart building, to which scholars have given limited attention. Finally, a research direction framework is presented to address the identified limitations of existing studies and help envision the ideal state of digital twins for smart buildings.

Within the building sector a lack of clarity in terminology does not help designers, clients or researchers. Non-domestic buildings have shown rapid increases in the use of advanced technology and control systems with varying drivers, many of which are labelled as intelligent. The term smart has been used interchangeably with intelligent without any clear distinction between the two. If the term Smart Buildings represented a separate, more advanced grouping, it would provide an opportunity to focus the future progress of non-domestic building development. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Drawing upon academic and industrial literature and experience, this paper reviews the scope of Intelligent Buildings and the current available definitions of Smart Buildings to form a clear definition of both smart and Intelligent Buildings.

These definitions define the border between the intelligent and the (more advanced) Smart Building. The upper bound of the Smart Building is defined by (the future development of) the predictive building.

This work provides a clear focus which will allow the progression of the non-domestic building sector by providing guidance and aspiration, as well as providing a platform upon which a large amount of technical work can be based.

While smart building technologies (SBTs) implementation ensures sustainability, their adoption is hampered by latent barriers, especially in project management processes. These latent barriers must be addressed to facilitate the successful and widespread adoption of SBTs. Therefore, this study aims to explore the significant latent barriers inhibiting the project management processes in adopting SBTs in developing countries.

A positivist research philosophy couched within a deductive approach was adopted to undertake a quantitative questionnaire survey of 227 project management and design team participants. Descriptive and inferential analytical tools (including a one sample T-test and exploratory factor analysis) were then adopted to interpret data collected.

The results reveal that the “high cost of smart sustainable materials and equipment” is the major significant barrier hindering the adoption of SBTs in developing countries. Latent barriers were: “structure and time-related barriers,” “construction-related barriers” and “human, policy and cost-related barriers”.

The study contributes novel insights into the prevailing nascent discourse on SBTs from the perspectives of construction project managers and design teams in developing countries, particularly. Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that ascertains the significant barriers inhibiting project management processes in adopting SBTs in developing countries.