Office upgrade

Designed for the Agnelli Foundation, Office 3.0 uses sensors integrated into the building to track the location of employees. The network then uses this information, alongside environmental data such as occupancy levels, temperature and CO2 concentration, to manipulate lighting, heating and cooling systems to create environmental bubbles around each individual.

This means that lights will automatically be turned off in rooms that are not occupied, while heating elements hidden in the ceiling will be activated whenever someone is standing below them. In time the building will learn occupants’ usage patterns to become more efficient.

‘Today, a lot of energy is wasted heating or cooling empty buildings,’ Carlo Ratti said in a statement. ‘By synchronising energy usage and human occupancy in buildings, we can create a more sustainable and responsive architecture – theoretically slashing energy consumption by up to 40%.’