Cogitative Buildings: Concepts, Technologies, Implementations

This paper is concerned with the necessary conditions for the emergence of cogitative buildings. A cogitative building is defined here as one that possesses a multi-faceted representation of its context (site, microclimate), its physical constituents (elements, components, systems), and its processes (occupancy presence and actions, indoor climate controls). Moreover, a cogitative building can dynamically update this representation and use it for virtual experiments toward regulation of its systems and states. The paper presents a summary of the required key technologies and the related state of their development, together with general reflections on problems and prospects of cogitative buildings.