Big business, big data

Big business, big data 

The built environment is big business, yet we insist considering it from within the limitations of small and medium enterprises. According to all statistics I read (e.g. https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2013/10/15/rapport-woonuitgaven-van-huurders-en-eigenaren-bewoners), we spend at least one quarter of our income in order to have a home. If one adds to that the cost of workplaces, transportation from home to work, shops and entertainment etc., it becomes obvious that the built environment is where we invest the most. Yet I don't think we receive enough return for our investment because we don't acknowledge the scale of the problems and solutions involved. Everything is cut down to small pieces, not to be manageable but to suit existing, lately outdated practices.

Big problems require big data: we have to collect quite a lot to have a reliable picture of what happens, to identify patterns and develop adequate representations for realising the enormity of our tasks and thoroughly testing solutions. Big data in the built environment is not just a matter of clever, opportunistic demonstrations but a matter for sustained effort that leads to better awareness and insightful overview. It's strange that the average car has more sensors than the average home and that the car sensors and the automated behaviours that derive from them are considered much more important than knowing what happens at home, even though the car doesn't cost as much.

On the positive side, there's a lot that's really big in the built environment: the egos of all the mighty - architects, politicians, experts, property developers. Unfortunately, all these egos absorb rather than radiate and reduce everything that can grow around them.