ABSTRACT
The built environment consists of construction and infrastructure that are called to provide the required services for a long stretch of time, often decades. If they fail to do so, the consequences for society can be very severe. Over this time horizon, assets are exposed to variable conditions that influence their performance, e.g. roads are confronted with a volume of traffic that is largely variable both on the short-term, i.e. hourly variation between pick and off-pick times and in the long-term, i.e. trend of demand over decades. Under such variable operation conditions, static construction and infrastructure cannot guarantee an acceptable level of service all the time, e.g., a road with a fixed capacity cannot guarantee to be adequate in peak hours and efficient in off-peak hours. Variable operating conditions require a responsive built environment able to adapt accordingly to provide an effective and efficient response. Recent developments in sensing technologies, actuating systems, and the IoT have explored the potential for the use of responsive systems to optimize the service provided by built environments operating under variable conditions. Some examples include automatically controlled buildings’ lighting and fencing, as a function of the outdoor sun exposure, and road line capacities, as a function of the traffic demand. Despite some examples of responsive systems, there is still a lack of systematic analysis of their use in infrastructure and construction. This lack prevents a full understanding of the current capabilities of a responsive built environment is presented. In this work a systematic analysis of the most cutting-edge use of responsive systems for the built environment - in terms of sensing technologies, actuating systems, and triggering logics - and possible future developments are outlined.
