Digital platforms and aspiring AI tools arouse buildings to life.
In the Porta Nuova district in Milan, a huge, once deteriorated train station was transformed into one of the most advanced urban regeneration projects in Europe. Buildings such as Gioia 22 and Pirelli 35 are powered by geothermal pumps and covered with photovoltaic panels.
“The building must be alive,” said Claudia Guenzi, head of the intelligent infrastructure for Siemens in Italy, at a press conference in Milan. “That means understanding and controlling your behavior in real time. And we cannot just dig up grille again and again. Software is the only scalable answer.”
This is an important point, especially in areas with old infrastructure and legacy technologies. Software can promise more intelligent, more efficient systems and buildings, but it remains a challenge to do it right. Without clear incentives, inclusive design and a culture that understands its role and purpose, the risks of the value are not realized.
Carlo Ratti, director of the city laboratory and founding partner at Carlo Ratti Associati, said to Engineering.com: “Data is everywhere, but insight is rare. Building owners collect huge information volume about energy consumption, the occupancy pattern and maintenance.
This is where developers like Coima come into play. Coima works with Siemens at Porta Nuova and helps to deliver a building management system that integrates HLK, fire protection, intrusion detection and electrical systems into a uniform platform. According to Siemens, the energy consumption in Gioia 22 has been reduced by 75%since then, which prevents over 2,200 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Data now defines the infrastructure
Even if the technology has demonstrably improved, there are signs that not all tenants fully understand or use the tools available to them. As Stefano Covi, Coima's sustainability officer, told Engineering.com: “Most people who own buildings do not know the data in their buildings and it is a shame. Because they cannot manage properly without data.”
So is the software really eats infrastructure? Or is the infrastructure simply updated to speak the language of software?
In both cases, digital systems no longer only support the built environment, but define how it behaves, leads and further develops over time. According to Jimmy Abualdenia from Nemetschek Group, which is responsible for the digital twins of the company, this transformation is not only necessary, but overdue.
“Digital twins and intelligent construction platforms are not only justified by their operating and environmental costs, they are also of essential importance for the achievement of Netto -Null destinations,” Abueldenia told Engineering.com. “By integrating real-time data from IoT sensors and the use of AI, digital twins provide implementable insights that optimize energy consumption, reduce carbon emissions and extend the life cycles of the systems.”
Nevertheless, there is caution even with supporters. Abualdenien notes that the greatest challenges are not in the tools themselves, but in the systems that surround them – data silos, fragmented standards and lack of interoperability.
His demand for open standards and collaborative workflows reflects a broader company in the industry that can create the rush to digitize new forms of lock-in or technical debts. This is particularly relevant because the construction technologies are increasingly similar to software stacks in which decisions made in the design phase can influence flexibility and livelihood in the coming decades.
Ratti from with sensitive city lab goes on. “There is no uniform answer,” he said to Engineering.com. “It depends on how and what you use [these systems]. Let me use an analogy and take generative AI, for example. It can help optimize energy generation and reduce emissions and to repay many orders of magnitude. However, if you use it to generate meaningless anime videos, the environmental costs are hardly justified. “
Ratti, who says that he has already researched many of these compromises through experimental projects at the Biennale Archetettura 2025 in Venice, believes that intelligence alone is not sufficient. The purpose is important. Also property. Design too.
Strengthen engineers instead of dictating
This message is repeated by Arups Lindsay English, Associate Director and Head of Americas Digital Rail and John Hagerty, an associated digital master planning and intelligent buildings. For them, software is part of a toolkit, a means to an end, not the goal itself.
“The toolkit is there to improve the work of the engineers,” said English Engineering.com. “Yes, the capital return is important. But there are also other results that are also important. Reduce the risk, improve the project quality and help the engineers to present the dependencies earlier.”
This displacement of static models to dynamic system thinking is already in progress in Arup's railway buildings. English points to a project in which a digital Twin strategy was not only designed for operation and maintenance, but during the construction work to manage the coordination of the contractor, to pursue the building in real time and to assess the sustainability and cost effects of design changes.
“Most cost savings are in the company. Instead of waiting, we used the twin to improve the delivery, risk and the fashion results in several dimensions,” said English.
Hagerty adds that one of the most urgent challenges is not the technology itself, but the organizational structures around them.
“Customers can usually find funding,” said Hagerty to Engineering.com. “But if they are not structured, to support these systems over time with an internal champion, a plan for evolution and the orientation between teams, they fall apart.” He quotes the common scenario in which a customer invests in smart system for a new flagship, but ignores the Legacy estate, which makes up most of its footprint.
The tendency to concentrate on new buildings lacks the greater chance – the systems that we already have. Here too, interoperability becomes a sticking point.
“Always avoid the seller closure,” said English. “We don't know what the future will do, but we know that assets can take 100 years. You want a basis that is flexible enough to adapt.”
The expectations change
Mohammed, the VP at Schneider Electric, agrees. “In older buildings, facility managers often have to deal with separate, non -connected systems. This makes it difficult to recognize what works well and what is not. But with modern BMS [battery management systems] And sensors, managers can quickly react to how the building is used and to change in the environment, ”he says.
Siemens takes a similar long -term view. “We don't look at the trip ended,” says Guenzi. “The technology is scalable and ready for future development.”
This foundation is increasingly data. However, the data value depends on its user -friendliness.
“I cannot tell you how many portfolio owners still rely on phone calls and clamping boards to get the answers you need,” says Arups Hagert.
The goal is not only a single source of truth, but also a common one in which engineers, operators and tenants can access the same information and react to the same information. But access is not enough either. As Ratti puts it, data is everywhere, but insight is rare. The risk is that in the end we design more like complexity than for clarity. This risk only grows if AI is more embedded in design and operations. While tools such as generative AI can accelerate the access of the information dramatically and automate workflows, you also raise questions about data protection, governance and control.
Hagerty suggests that the industry is just beginning to expect these effects.
“Customers are already asking what all this technology means for privacy. That will think much faster than mainstream than people,” he said.
Where's the engineer? According to English, the role develops quickly. “In the past, a civil engineer who focused on mechanical systems was. Now they collect calls about IT infrastructure, cyber risk and AI-controlled control systems. The skills changes.”
These are also the expectations. When the infrastructure becomes more soft, the traditional boundaries between architecture, engineering and operations begin to blur. For Arup, the answer is in flexibility to build foundations that support changes instead of resisting it. This can require new procurement models, new forms of government and rethinking the value that goes beyond the costs per square meter.
“Smart infrastructure should not be an optional extra,” said Hagerty. “It is already part of most modern systems whether people recognize it or not. The question is whether we can carefully make these decisions and build systems with which we can live in the long term.”
The future of the infrastructure may not be one, with the software simply eats the physical. It may be one in which the physical and digital co-evoVolve sometimes uncomfortable, often chaotic, but with the eye on what is most important. How Ratti reminds us and quotes the Cedric Prize: “Technology is the answer. But what was the question?”