THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION IN BUILDING SECURITY

Jaroslav Barton, HID’s Product Marketing Director for Physical Access Control, looks at the latest technologies available when it comes to managing the security of buildings.

Access control evolves to capitalise on the power and versatility of smartphones

Architects and contractors have always had to cope with what appears to be mutually exclusive demands. Not only do they have a wide remit to manage – whether that’s designing and constructing buildings that are ‘futureproof’ in terms of usage, maintenance, energy and security – but they’re tasked with doing this at the right quality, the right time and the right price. It’s tough to do.

And post pandemic, a whole new employment paradigm has to be considered, namely hybrid working, which is making the workplace significantly more dynamic, fluid and complex.

Historically, the norm was for most employees to work on site. It was, therefore, easier to offer access to a building and forecast the utilisation of it. Today, employees are in and out all the time and work remotely, capitalising on the latest unified communication apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

The knock-on effect for organisations is considerable. They need efficient and easy ways of managing building access whilst grappling with today’s more strategic challenges, such as delivering against stringent environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.

Access control isn’t just about door entry anymore

The role and benefit of access control have changed markedly in recent years. No longer is it just a way to prevent entry to a building by unauthorised people. As the technology has evolved, it is playing a far greater part to enhance the operational engineering, maintenance and functioning of buildings.

A key enabler of this change is the option to transition away from using physical plastic access cards – which utilise RFID technology – to smartphone-based solutions, along with wearables like smartwatches. These then leverage virtual credential technology connecting to mobile-enabled door readers to allow people to enter.

A raft of benefits can be gained from these mobile access solutions, unlocking the potential for smarter, greener and more efficient buildings.

Simplified management is delivered

Any iOS or Android device can be used, with digital wallet integration now possible. Software-based management running in the cloud makes it straightforward to then deal with the licencing, allocation of virtual credentials, setting of building access rights, validating or revoking of IDs remotely and dealing with visitors or contractors. The upshot? Mobile access solutions make life easier as they’re much simpler and more efficient to manage and use.

Products that are interoperable and support common industry standards are readily available, too. Using open APIs and software development kits (SDKs), integration is simplified, enabling organisations to create an ecosystem of solutions to manage their buildings, whilst avoiding vendor lock in. This makes them easy to integrate with HR, IT, HVAC, time attendance, lighting, air purification, lifts and other systems that combine to make up smart buildings.

Mobile access enhances security, safety and is better for the environment

Mobile-based credentials and door readers support the latest encryption, communications and authentication standards – to establish trusted identities – just like physical access cards. Mobile has key advantages. First, users take far more care looking after their expensive smartphones compared to plastic access cards; research shows a whopping 17% are lost or mislaid every year. Each time this happens, it creates a security risk.

Second, if someone does indeed lose their smartphone, they’ll clock this far more quickly (who can function without a phone these days?) with their digital credential, then able to be quickly disabled wirelessly. This remote management capability with mobile access is fundamentally an important advantage.

It is estimated that more than 550 million PVC access cards are made and sold annually each year, creating 2700 tons of plastic waste and emitting 11,400 tons of carbon emissions. It is a significant amount, especially as so many cards have to be replaced regularly. Digital credentials remove this environmental overhead in one fell swoop, helping boost a building owner’s sustainability initiatives and ESG Index scores.

With support for both Bluetooth and NFC – two technologies enabling data transfer over short distances – mobile access solutions also provide touchless entry, like traditional physical cards. This makes it much quicker for people to open doors, thereby improving the user experience.

A key enabler for smart buildings

Many organisations today include workplace apps as part of the services offered so that users get the most value out of their buildings, whether this is reserving desks, booking meeting rooms or parking slots. When mobile access is integrated with these apps, it makes access control an essential component, driving up app traffic given people have everything in one place on their phones.

In addition, there’s always a focus on how to decrease operational costs. Data generated from access control systems – like the number of people entering and exiting a building, floor or room –combined with other building sensors help owners and their facility managers monitor and interact with their buildings far better. It is the door readers that provide this kind of granular data.

Perhaps one of the most exciting developments with mobile access control is the forthcoming availability of solutions with built-in ‘identity positioning’. This provides real-time information ‘behind the door’ about how people are using the building – based on data provided by their phones. This is certainly not Big Brother tracking an individual’s movements. No personal or private data is collected. Rather, information is anonymised and grouped in order to provide an overall picture of trends like space utilisation, occupancy and so on.

It moves access control from just being a security solution to one that takes on a far more important role in a smart building, as identity positioning adds the context of location. Take a simple example. By providing real-time data like this to an appropriate HVAC system, the AC could be turned up automatically if a group of 20 people gathered in a meeting room. Similarly, workplace app developers could take ‘staff location’ to augment the solutions they provide.

In summary, mobile access solutions are evolving to help owners differentiate their buildings, add value to tenants and make their operations ever more efficient and ‘greener’. Not only that, but they’re cost effective and quick to deploy.

CASE STUDY:

City workers at 22 Bishopsgate now gain fast office access using their iPhones or Apple Watches.

Intelligent building technology from Smart Spaces – along with a HID mobile access solution – has been installed at the landmark commercial skyscraper, 22 Bishopsgate, the tallest tower in the City of London’s financial district at 278m high. This means office workers who use iPhones or Apple Watches can enter the building easily, securely and quickly by simply holding their devices near any NFC-enabled door reader, as their employee badges are now stored directly in Apple Wallet.

Smart Spaces provides a suite of cuttingedge technologies for workspaces. By utilising HID Mobile Access and building management systems, Smart Spaces constantly adapts to deliver best-inclass experiences to make daily work life more efficient for occupiers, employees, property owners and managers alike while optimising sustainability and wellness.

The introduction of employee badges in Apple Wallet – the project at 22 Bishopsgate being one of the first sites to debut in the UK – is the next step in transforming the user experience in a modern workplace. Multiplatform QR access will remain available to those that require it, too.

Unlike physical cards, there is no waiting time for obtaining building credentials, making building access for new employees quick and efficient. In addition, employee badges in Apple Wallet take full advantage of the privacy and security features built into Apple’s iOS.

SEALING FUTURE ENERGY-EFFICIENT HOMES

Andy Swift, Sales and Operations Manager for ISO-Chemie, says Building Regulations requiring windows to be ever more airtight will drive an uplift in energy-efficient homes.

Changes to Part L of the Building Regulations are the driving force behind stricter standards and compliance procedures around energy and ventilation performance, contributing towards a roadmap to a net-zero carbon future and the new homes designed and built now being built having to fall in line with stricter carbon emissions targets. Specifically, to ensure continuity of the air barrier, window and door units will have to connect to the primary air barrier, and the frames will need to be taped to surrounding structural openings using air-sealing tape.

This comes against the backdrop where the evidence points to doors and windows as the main source of the nation’s chronic energy-inefficient homes. Indeed, it could be said that, in the light of product innovation over the years, it’s perhaps ‘criminal’ that the hundreds of thousands of new or retrofit installations completed each year go unchecked or unregulated, producing a legacy of problems for years to come and costing millions of pounds to rectify. This is a pity because, with advancements in costeffective, easy-to-use technologies, there’s never a justifiable reason for delaying or avoiding the specification of better energyefficient window and door sealing solutions.

A irtightness improvements

In this respect, the changes to Part L will have to be seen as a step in the right

ISO-CHEMIE

direction for the new-build fenestration sector. It will see requirements for improvements in airtightness, forcing them from 10 air changes per hour down to five air changes per hour and also U-value on windows shifting from 1.6 to 1.2wm2 k/H, which will require more energy-efficient sealant solutions, such as thermal foam tapes. The requirement also now states that the frame should be linked back to the wall with an airtight tape.

Heat will always find the fastest exit as it comes up against the ‘A’ or ‘A+’-rated window, and invariably this emanates from the 10mm or so expansion gap left around the window following fitment. This is normally left empty, but some amount of spray foam can be injected to fill the void before a silicone trim is applied for a smartlooking finish. Unfortunately, as expedient as this might seem, none of these solutions creates a measurable, long-term, highperformance thermal, acoustic or airtight barrier – the U-value of the installed window is simply reduced, which leads to heat escape and, ultimately, financial loss.

That’s why the housebuilding industry and wider construction sector deserve better-insulating solutions to improve energy efficiencies, particularly in the face of a chronic national housing shortage and the need to build more affordable housing.

In modular construction, which continues to gain traction – industry sources estimate that out of the 200,000 homes currently constructed annually, about 15,000 of them are modular – and sees continued integration with more traditional methods of building, house designers and specifiers are looking at new ways to deliver lowcarbon structures, which use sustainable technologies to deliver measurable airtight, acoustic and thermal sealing benefits. And this is where self-adhesive foam sealing tapes can add real value, enabling developers to bring forward housing projects more expediently.

They can use ‘smart’ foams impregnated with different substances to create a measurable U-value as low as 0.6w/m2k, offer superb thermal insulation and can contribute to acoustic sound reduction by 63 dB. As these installation tapes are completely weathertight against driving rain up to hurricane-force wind speeds, installers can quickly apply them around the frame during the initial fitting. This provides the assurance that they have completed a comprehensive ‘A’-rated installation rather than just supplying an ‘A’-rated window. This is a benefit that can be sold on to deliver enhanced energy-efficiency advantages for customers and property owners.

Future Homes Standard

Undoubtedly, Building Regulation changes are moving the fenestration industry closer to the requirements of the Future Homes Standard for dwellings. This standard, which comes into force in 2025, is designed to deliver buildings that are zero-carbon ready and achieve world-leading levels of energy efficiency.

The uplift in Part L of the regulations includes a requirement for new homes to produce around 31% less CO2 than current standards and a 27% reduction of emissions from other new buildings, including offices and shops. By 2025, when all aspects of the Future Homes and Buildings Standards come into force, the Building Regulations will inevitably become even more strict, requiring new homes to produce almost three-quarters less CO2 when compared to current standards. www.iso-chemie.eu/engb/home

So, changes will have an unequivocal impact on energy standards for residential and non-domestic buildings that are far better for the environment and fit for the future – higher air and thermal standards for house construction has to be a priority.

As sustainability continues to be of paramount concern in the development of low-carbon and eco-friendly building projects, we will see technologies, such as energy foam tapes, which can add real value during the initial and post-construction phases, only grow in importance as the most effective solutions for sealing window and door frame expansion joints and gaps in houses in pursuit of attaining the Future Homes Standard. It’s simply a matter of designing in these products.