ABSTRACT
Sense, actuate, respond, interact, adapt. All are verbs of motion; as such, all are forms of energy. We thereby equate them with dynamic behavior. What we rarely understand is that the most salient characteristic of energy is not dynamism but transiency. Transiency denies fixity. Therein lies the dilemma of the smart building—our desire for dynamism has been manifest in our activation of every artifact we can find in a building from facades to surfaces to systems to components, but in so doing, we have created an architecture whose dynamic qualities are assigned to tangible objects. Transient behaviors are highly unlikely to emerge coincident with any given object, much less to do so repeatedly. Could our architecture become smarter if we allowed the building to become dumber? By decoupling actions from artifacts we may have greater opportunities to create more responsive environments.
