Provincial House Utrecht: Smart Building Lab

The provincial government building is located in the middle of Rijnsweerd, a district in Utrecht East. This area is to be developed in the long term into 'the area of the future': the sensor city. The provincial government building is the former office of Fortis and is now owned and used by the province of Utrecht.

To reach the area of the future, innovation and renewal are needed on all fronts; from technology and data to human capital and legal aspects. Digitalization and technological renewal do not stand alone. These innovations require crossovers between different companies and institutions. Knowledge exchange is essential in this.

The ambition of the province of Utrecht is to create a multi-year experience & expertise center. This center contains relevant stakeholders such as technology parties, building managers, building users and safety regions. Together and in co-creation they can work on a building that optimally supports the people who work in it, ensures a healthy living environment and contributes to the energy transition.

Kick-off

Over the coming years, the province has made its building available to various parties and coalitions to show what they have to offer and to test concepts. On 12 December 2018, the kick-off took place in the provincial government building in Utrecht. During a conference, themes were discussed that digitalisation can contribute to, such as the energy transition, safety and smart mobility. Building-related parties/coalitions were challenged to show their concept that can offer interesting crossovers with other concepts and the Rijnsweerd area vision in the future.

The submitted concepts were assessed by a jury on:

• Originality, creativity and state of the art in application of IoT, standards, dashboards
• Usability and scalability of the solutions
• Measurable effect on energy use, occupancy and comfort
• And to what extent the solution can be used in a learning environment of the sensitive building and sensor city

Do you have any questions about the project in the provincial government building of Utrecht? Please contact Martin Hof.