Top 10 Smart Buildings in the World by Dave Tyson

• 20 May 2018
• Construction Focus
• 5177 Views

The idea of ‘Smart…’ has become widely used in our current fast-moving hi-tech world terms such as smart phone, smart city, smart car, smart building, and the list goes on. Regarding the idea of smart building, Construction Global Magazine recently listed their top 10 smart buildings in the world in conjunction with Dave Tyson.

Dave Tyson is a Managing Director at leading structural and civil engineering practice Design2e with over 30 years experiences within the industry. For Tyson’s judging, ‘smart’ in this sense focused on seminal works rather than clever electronics.

10 | Market Hall, Rotterdam [Designed by Winy Maas, Jacob Van Rijs, and Nathalie de Vries]

Market Hall, Rotterdam [Designed by Winy Maas, Jacob Van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries]

What’s unique about this building is its shape structure that can resist the tensioned rods strung across the glass screens that resist the horizontal wind forces.

9 | Wohlen High School, Roofs, and Hall, Wohlen, Switzerland [Designed by Santiago Calatrava]

Wohlen High School, Roofs and Hall, Wohlen, Switzerland [Designed by Santiago Calatrava]

The highlight of this building is a collection of four unique roofs: an outside entrance canopy, an inside entrance hall, the assembly hall and the library. The four petal-like circular is not only for light control, but they are elegant and intelligent engineering form.

8 I Kuwait Pavilion, Sevilla, Spain [Designed by Santiago Calatrava]

Kuwait Pavilion, Sevilla, Spain [Designed by Santiago Calatrava]

What is smart about this building is the 17 scimitar-shaped ribs design. Each of them is 25meter in length which is computer-controlled to open and close in 15 pre-programmed positions to let in the desired amount of sunlight. However, it is bad news that the building now rots in obscurity after the Expo in 1992.

7 | Church of the Light, Osaka, Japan [Designed by Tadao Ando]

Church of the Light, Osaka, Japan [Designed by Tadao Ando]

Church of the Light, Osaka, Japan [Designed by Tadao Ando]

This building is a perfect merge between architecture and nature to create a cruciform of light. Using the medium of concrete which is simply glued-together earth, the course nature of the concrete is managed in such a mannered way that makes this otherwise plain space exquisite.

6 | Gallery Of The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas [Designed by Renzo Piano]

Gallery of The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas [Designed by Renzo Piano]

Gallery of The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas [Designed by Renzo Piano]

Smart light control is the unique point of the building which the whole gallery is illuminated by natural light via a roof of ‘leaves’ of thin Ferro-cement. The outside walls are cypress wood timbered in reference to the surrounding houses in the neighborhood.

5 | The Pompidou Centre, Paris, France [Designed by Renzo Piano]

The Pompidou Centre, Paris, France [Designed by Renzo Piano]

The Pompidou Centre, Paris, France [Designed by Renzo Piano]

One word to describe this building is smart flexibility to reorganize for different purposes when needed. Each 7,500 sqm floor extends through the building entirely uninterrupted by load-bearing structures.

4 | The Steve Jobs Theater, Cupertino, California [Designed by Norman Foster]

The Steve Jobs Theater, Cupertino, California [Designed by Norman Foster]

The Steve Jobs Theater, Cupertino, California [Designed by Norman Foster]

This building gives you the feeling of how you can be inside and outside at the same time. The unique is the use of glass with the distinctive 155-foot metallic carbon fiber ‘flying saucer lid’. The building is the large, completely open top floor and there’s no visible frame, pipes, wires, or speakers. They are hidden in 20 of the thin joints separating each glass panel.

3 | Riverside Museum, Glasgow, Scotland [Designed by Zaha Hadid]

Riverside Museum, Glasgow, Scotland [Designed by Zaha Hadid]

Riverside Museum, Glasgow, Scotland [Designed by Zaha Hadid]

The building is a clear blend of the vernacular historic form. It also has the capacity to be adaptable, given its simple expanse of open space. The unique about this building is the distinctive zinc zig-zag roof.

2 | Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain [Designed by Frank Gehry]

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain [Designed by Frank Gehry]

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain [Designed by Frank Gehry]

The Guggenheim Museum shows how architecture can drive regeneration and how deconstructional architecture manages the internal environment, especially light. The building provides vistas and spaces you cannot get bored with. The sculpture-like structure perfectly integrates with the surrounding area.

1 | Beijing National Stadium, China [Designed by Ai Weiwei, Pierre de Meuron, Jacques Herzog, Li Xinggang]

Beijing National Stadium, China [Designed by Ai Weiwei, Pierre de Meuron, Jacques Herzog, Li Xinggang]

Beijing National Stadium, China [Designed by Ai Weiwei, Pierre de Meuron, Jacques Herzog, Li Xinggang]

Beijing National Stadium is known as the “Bird’s Nest” because of the web of twisting steel sections that form the roof. The stadium has a gross volume of three million cubic meters and is considered to be the world’s largest enclosed space. It is also the world’s largest steel structure with 26km of unwrapped steel used.