This PhD thesis is based on four articles, each focused on distinct research areas: building occupants, smarter higher educational buildings, smart building systems and the digital transformation of real estate organizations. Rather than concentrating on one specific research area, the objective was to provide a comprehensive view of the broader system and delve into these four key research areas. Thus, they are all interdependent and require equal attention to facilitate the digital transformation within the commercial real estate industry. This transformation aims to create a more climate neutral built environment while ensuring good quality indoor comfort.

The findings reveal a paradox within smart building systems, where building occupants are often treated as passive agents and interactions are intentionally reduced. However, it can be argued that some interactions will be beneficial, as building occupants considered as active agents could contribute to a more sustainable building operation. This study also concludes that current smart buildings are not yet smart enough and that all data is not smart data. Furthermore, the investigation into what constitutes a smart building has led to the identification of key features of smarter higher educational buildings. Finally, the concluding part of this study delved into the organizational challenges associated with digital transformation, proposing potential solutions to enhance innovation processes. Based on these findings, a framework for human-centric digital transformation was proposed.   

Denna avhandling baseras på fyra artiklar som fokuserar på användare, smartare högskola och universitetsbyggnader, smarta byggnadssystem samt kommersiella fastighetsorganisationer under digital transformation. Avhandlingen utgår från ett system med dessa fyra identifierade forskningsområden. Syftet är att visa att de är sammankopplade och att de behöver likvärdig fokus för att kunna dra slutsatser om hur digital transformation inom den kommersiella fastighetsindustrin kan leda till en klimatneutral byggd miljö, samtidigt som ett gott inomhusklimat säkerställs.

Resultaten visar att smarta byggnadssystem liknar en paradox där användare behandlas som passiva objekt och där interaktioner är medvetet reducerade. Trots detta så kan vissa interaktioner vara fördelaktiga eftersom användare betraktade som aktiva objekt kan bidra till en mer hållbar drift. I tillägg till detta kan det sammanfattas att smarta byggnader är ännu ej tillräckligt smarta. Och även att all data är inte smart data. Analyserandet av smarta byggnadssystem resulterade i en identifiering av vad som karakteriserar en sådan smart byggnad. Den avslutande delen av studien analyserade organisatoriska utmaningar med digital transformation där förslag till möjliga lösningar till att förbättra innovationsprocesser var presenterade. Dessa resultat gav inspiration till en modell för digital transformation med människan-i-centrum.

Nyckelord

Högskola och universitetsbyggnader, digital transformation, smarta byggnadssystem, energianvändning, människan i centrum, användare, fastighetsorganisation, fastighetsdrift, operational excellence, klimatneutrala byggnader.

While real estate owners play a significant role in advancing digitalization and sustainability within the sector, there's limited understanding of their innovation processes. This article aims to increase understanding on the innovation processes and dynamic capabilities in real estate owner organizations. The article examines a longitudinal case study within a prominent Swedish real estate owner known for significant investments in smart building technologies. Despite these investments, practical benefits face hurdles, reflecting broader challenges in real estate sector digitalization projects. These obstacles include top-down innovation focus, limited cross-functional and user-centric innovation, innovation process discontinuities, ambiguous innovator roles, hierarchical communication, resource constraints, and uncertainties in technology implementation. The study emphasizes the inclusion of diverse perspectives in innovation processes and suggests further research on organizational and user-centric aspects. It contributes to real estate and facility management literature by proposing potential solutions to innovation processes, offering valuable insights for industry practitioners and researchers alike.

Digital twin technology is an emerging technology within the built environment. There are yet many unexplored opportunities to utilize digital twins for facilitating the transformation towards a climate neutral building stock while also meeting the expectations from the building occupants. This article presents a case study of a digital twin, developed for an existing commercial building stock of campus areas in Sweden. The overarching purpose of the digital twin is to support both building occupants and building operators. This twofold human-centric approach represents a novel approach for building digital twins. The digital twin is based on 3D scanning and together with geospatial data, a real-like navigational indoor environment is created. Three innovative features are presented; the building analysis module, the digital twin mobile application and the building operations module. The results show that the digital twin improves the building occupant’s experience by supporting navigation and providing access to room booking system via this dedicated interface. Building management is also benefited by the digital twin through easier access to building data aggregated into one platform and a state-of-the-art analysis tool for optimizing the use of indoor space. The digital twin holds future potential to achieve operational excellence by incorporating feedback mechanisms and utilizing Artificial Intelligence to enable intelligent fault detection and prevention.

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In the light of global climate change and the current energy crisis, it is crucial to target sustainable energy use in all sectors. Buildings still remain one of the most energy-demanding sectors. Campus buildings and higher educational buildings are important to target due to their high and increasing energy demand. This building segment also represents a research gap, as mostly office or domestic buildings have been studied previously. In the quest for thermal comfort, a key stakeholder in building energy demand is the building occupant. It is therefore crucial to promote energy-aware behaviors. The building systems are another key factor to consider. As conventional building systems are replaced with smart building systems, the entire scenario is redrawn for how building occupants interact with the building and its systems. This study argues that behavior is evolving with the smartness of building systems. By means of a semi-systematic literature review, this study presents key findings from peer-reviewed research that deal with building occupant behavior, building systems and energy use in campus buildings. The literature review was an iterative process based on six predefined research questions. Two key results are presented: a graph of reported energy-saving potentials and a conceptual framework to evaluate building occupants impact on building energy use. Furthermore, based on the identified research gaps in the selected literature, areas for future research are proposed.

Energy-intense activities and the unpredictable and complex behavior of building occupants lead to an increase in building energy demand. It is, therefore, crucial to study underlying factors for building energy demand related to the users. Higher educational buildings are relevant to study for several reasons: they host the future workforce and citizens, they are predicted to increase in numbers, and they represent a building type less studied. Furthermore, green-rated buildings equipped with smart building systems also represent a research gap that is relevant to address since such a building design involves IoT-functionalities and digital features for the building occupants to interact with. There is also a conceivable risk that if the users know that the building is green-rated and technologically advanced, this may alter their perception of the building operation and thus their behavior. To study the relationship between building occupants and such green and smart educational structure, a survey was conducted in a Swedish higher educational building; as a result, 300 responses were collected and analyzed. The responses revealed that the building occupants act with energy awareness, and they are conscious about energy-saving behaviors. One building feature in particular was studied: the Digital Room Panels (DRPs). The DRP allows the building occupants to modify the indoor temperature and is, therefore, essential for thermal comfort. One key finding from the survey revealed that 70% of the building occupants did not know how the DRPs operate. This study argues that this result can be explained with a lack of communication and user friendliness. Inadequate interactions with building systems could also result in opportunities for energy saving might not be realized. The findings of this case study led to valuable recommendations and suggestions for future research endeavors.

This paper presents a path towards the implementation of a Digital Twin for campus environments. The main purpose of the Digital Twin is to accomplish an advanced analytical tool, which supports building owners, building operators and building users to reach an improved performance of the building. Digital Twins is new to the building and the real estate industry, hence research within this field is scarce. This paper contributes to the research by providing a methodology to implement a Digital Twin of an existing building stock of campus areas in Sweden. The main results obtained so far are presented. They indicate that the potential of a Digital Twin expands beyond the aspects of a navigational digital 3D model, including a state-of-the-art app that is developed from the Digital Twin platform.