This is the first text in the second series of posts on domotics, published by The Centre for Architecture Belgrade in cooperation with Cubo Control company from Belgrade. In the coming weeks, we will be dealing with topics such as heating and climatization, lighting and shading, audio systems, access control, energy savings. If you missed some of the previous posts, read them here. 

It’s a strange thing, that perspective. What may seem perfectly clear to someone standing at a certain point, becomes blurry or altogether hidden for someone observing it from just a few feet away. When we set out preparing the material for the Home Automation Manual the idea was simple- to make an overview of a field, which is, in all its complexity, an interesting mix of science and modern technologies, from the point of view of an architect, an interior designer or of the client. We have covered some of the basic points, such as protocol, design techniques, energy and time-saving methods, the optimal time to introduce home automation… In short, we have tried to answer the questions what, when, how, where, how much?

The next few pages will try to answer some of these questions, but we will all change our point of view a bit- we will take a few steps backwards and try to see this interesting and dynamic construction, the field of domotics, from a different perspective.

Comfort and a (Much) Higher Quality of Living

The first and foremost reason why one should consider introducing a domotics system into their space is the comfort. Simple as that. Comfort is not an easy thing to define – it is a personal and highly individual feeling of pleasantness brought about by internal and external stimuli. The Italians, probably the best known for giving this category more thought than some other nations, define comfort through the feeling of beauty (aesthetics), the minimizing or the absence of physical effort, feeling of pleasantness, acoustic or visual feeling of pleasure.

The feeling you get when staying in a ventilated space, with no stuffy air, in the appropriate temperature, humidity and air flow- the base of any well-designed air conditioning system, is easiest and best controlled by a home automation system. Besides the evident energy savings, it is clear how pleasant it is to have an intelligent system, which, to make it more obvious, one morning says: Though it’s the end of October, it’s a nice and warm morning, so I’ll open the blinds, turn the heating off completely and let in a lot of fresh air. If it starts to rain and the skies go dark, I’ll just condition the humidity, draw blinds a bit and turn on some background light until the storm passes. There are so many similar scenarios, which to us humans seem very simple if-then sequences, which we perform as reflexes at regular intervals.

Bring Light to Your Stage

Every true enthusiast or interior design professional will tell you, regardless of personal taste that the light is what gives the soul to a space, which makes it unique and special, which enables it to breathe. Adjusting the light to a situation, the weather conditions and the function of the space, and above all the possibility to change and adapt the light is something virtually impossible to achieve without the elegant domotics solutions.

Turn all the lights on at a single switch! Turn them off before you leave the house and be sure that they will stay turned off until you or someone from your family comes back in. Set the stage for a working environment. Adjust the contrasts in the living room. Use light and shadow play to emphasize the parts of the space that you want. Make the light dynamic – let it follow you through the space.

The authors of the text are Radiša Jovanović, PhD. and Marko Aleksendrić, PhD.  They are experienced mechanical engineers, whose field of expertise covers programming and design work, through intertwining of various technologijes.  

 Cubo Control is an engineering and programming studio that loves technology, automatics, Italian design, but also programming of computers and other devices: from window shades to mobile phones, from basement temperature to ship engines. It is founded with the idea to provide a unified offer of high-quality solutions at affordable prices in the field of contemporary automatics, especially domotics and industrial automatization, through careful selection of high-class equipment and affirmation of state-of-the-art concepts of comfort and energy efficiency.