Smart buildings look beyond the building equipment within their four walls.
With a packed hall of industry leaders, the Smart Buildings Summit got underway in Hotel Four Seasons, Mumbai, on August 21, 2015. Organised by ASAPP Media Information Group, the summit?s theme was ?Smart Buildings: Redefining Our Buildings?.
In his welcome address, Pratap Padode, Founder Director, Smart Cities Council India, set the tone for the day. He emphasised on the need for smart buildings and our responsibility to conserve resources, affirming that 60 per cent of our GDP comes from cities. The keynote address was given by V Suresh, Vice-Chairman, National Building Code of India (NBC). Part of the inaugural session was an international case study by Margeret Boethig, GMP Architects, Germany, who spoke of smart building components.
The first session, ?Smart Buildings: Changing Landscape in India?, focused on key initiatives taken in India to develop smarter buildings. Moderator Pranay Vakil, Founder Chairman, Praron Consultancy, said on an opening note, ?The fact that you are comfortable in a building means it is smart.? Citing examples of the Godrej Convention Centre in Hyderabad and the Burj Khalifa, he said smart buildings already exist and the world needs to follow these standards in becoming smart. The panellist speakers included architect Abhin Alimchandani, Shubhranshu Pani, Regional Director, Infrastructure Services, JLL.
The next session, ?Smart Building Technology?, focused on smart elements to optimise overall building performance. Here, Padode, as moderator, touched upon building automation, which already exists, but which has a cost involved, delving deeper into building information modelling (BIM), building maintenance system (BMS) and geographic information system (GIS). Other panellists included architect Sanjay Puri, Chetan Raikar, Chairman and Managing Director, Structwel Consultants and Sonia Dhopte, Director, Excilize.
The summit proceeded with presentations by Vikash Vidyarthi from Huliot Pipes and Fittings and Vishwas Tambe from Schindler. To conclude the summit, Rakesh Bhatia, Vice-President – Ecofirst, Tata Consulting Engineers, presented a case study: Risk Assessment and Retrofitting to Make Buildings Smart. Bhatia showcased a case study of Bombay House at Fort, which was retrofitted and received an Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) LEED Gold rating. With powerful and dynamic speakers and an august audience, the summit was a veritable a knowledge portal about smart buildings and opportunities in India.