Spying On Workers

Tomorrow's Buildings will look at how technology is making our offices smarter, our homes more affordable and even transforming building sites.

Ask someone what they dislike about working in an office and the list will probably be long.

It is likely to include: workload, the boss, colleagues, uncomfortable chairs, lack of light, no decent food in the canteen and Arctic air-conditioning.

Technology may soon be able to ease the last of these, offering a better working environment by allowing workers to control their heating via a smartphone app.

But does that come at a price? Do the sensors that are increasingly making the office environment smarter also mean that workers are under constant surveillance?

Welcome to the brave new world of the smart office.

Research firm Gartner predicts that commercial buildings will have more than 500 million "connected things" during 2016.

The biggest driver for this is to improve energy efficiency - currently commercial buildings account for 40% of the world's electricity consumption.

By embedding hundreds of sensors in walls, ceilings or even lights, the systems that keep the office running smoothly can be connected and in turn these building management systems (BMS) can be connected to the corporate network and the internet.

At Deloitte's headquarters in Amsterdam, workers can control the lights, heating and blinds via an app, while in London building consultant Arup is experimenting with smart desks - embedding sensors in them and hooking them up to smartphone apps to allow people to control lighting and heating.

Smarter systems offer huge potential energy savings - estimates range between 20% and 50%.

"A staggering amount of energy is wasted on heating empty offices, homes and partially occupied buildings," said Carlo Ratti, who heads up the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Senseable Cities lab.

His team is working on a project that measures the number of people in a building and adjusts heating and lighting accordingly - with a view to turning an empty building "off", just like a computer goes into standby mode when not in use.

He is also working on localized heating and cooling systems, which can provide a precise, personal climate for each occupant using "an array of responsive infrared heating elements that are guided by sophisticated motion tracking".

"Individual thermal 'clouds' follow people through space, ensuring ubiquitous comfort while improving overall energy efficiency," he explained.

Architecture Banned

The Chinese government has issued a new directive banning "bizarre architecture", and criticizing some of the "over-sized, xeno-centric, weird" buildings in the country.

China has seen a number of architectural gems springing up in recent years, including one building shaped like a teapot and another that has been likened to a pair of trousers.

Under the new directive, buildings are to be "economical, functional, aesthetically pleasing" and "environmentally friendly". 

Here is a selection of the more adventurous buildings that have been developed.

 On the outskirts of Changsha in southern China stands a new tower. Its size is modest by Chinese standards. 

At a mere 204m it's less than a third of the height of Shanghai's tallest. Its blocky glass and steel form may be unlikely to win any architectural beauty awards. 

But what is startling is the speed at which it was built. A time-lapse video shows it shoot up at the rate of three storys per day. 

For the man behind it, Zhang Yue (left), this is only the beginning. 

“Humans have experienced revolutions in industry, agriculture, transportation and information, but not yet in buildings,” says the handbook of the company he founded, Broad Group. 

Here now comes the revolution.”

The revolution will be modular, Zhang insists. Mini Sky City was assembled from thousands of factory-made steel modules, slotted together like Meccano. 

It's a method he says is not only fast, but also safe and cheap. 

Now he wants to drop the “Mini” and use the same technique to build the world’s tallest skyscraper, Sky City. 

While the current record holder, the 828m-high Burj Khalifa in Dubai, took five years to “top out”, Zhang says his proposed 220-storey “vertical city” will take only seven months - four for the foundations, and three for the tower itself. 

And it will be 10m taller. 

But if that was not enough, Zhang Yue wants nothing less than to reimagine the whole urban environment. 

He has a vision of a future where his company makes a third of the world's buildings – all modular, all steel, and all green. 

“The biggest problem we face in the world right now isn't terrorism or world war. It's climate change,” he says.

China Mall

(CBS News) In a country with skylines that dazzle, from Hong Kong to Shanghai, the city of Chengdu (the nation's fourth-largest, population 14 million) is making its mark with the New Century Global Center -- the world's largest stand-alone building.

It's not that tall, but everything about it is big.

People pose for pictures inside as if it's a monument, not a mall, though this much marble would put many monuments to shame.

It's a shrine to shopping, and certainly a shrine to size. The company that constructed this building says it's 1.9 million square meters -- that's more than 20 million square feet.

When you measure it by floor space area, it beats every other building in the world.

It's big enough to hold 20 Sydney Opera Houses, or three Pentagons. The building is so big, about 329 football fields could fit inside.

When we visited, workers were still putting on the finishing touches. But the private developer's plans include a hotel, an Imax theater and an aquarium, as well as an elaborate water park, and even a beach with nearly a thousand feet of coastline.

Beachgoers can view an oceanscape on-screen courtesy of a giant LED screen. How giant? It's about 150 meters wide, nearly twice as long as the Statue of Liberty is high.

A glass bridge hangs five stories up, with a sign: "Not for people with heart conditions . . . or women in skirts."

Some of the 150-plus stores have already opened, but many visitors seemed more drawn by the spectacle.

Ye Xin Yu told Seth Doane, "It's beautiful."

Liu Jia Ling told Doane, "I feel so proud that my hometown has a building like this."

Architects said that, in China, building "big" is a sign of success and achievement.

When asked what he might say to Americans who think the New Century Global Center might be TOO big, Yang Yi replied, "Welcome to China!”

We should all go for a visit…  it sound like to me.  Looks like Texas or California big is no longer that big at all…