The engineer must be permitted to design mechanical systems that go far beyond satisfying the minimum requirements of the local building codes. Buildings exist today with up to 80 zones per floor, so that each workstation is individually controlled for ventilation, temperature and lighting. To respond to organizational and technological change in the workplace, infrastructures must be fully re-locatable. Vivian Loftness, Ph.D . The concept of grids and nodes must be adopted to support a workstation or small work region, and designs must move away from large centrally controlled infrastructures with minimum zones.
Nodes provide flexibility in location, density and type of service offered.
Some fundamental design changes can be expected. When there is a failure in an operating system, the building is shut down. Building layouts should provide window access in areas such as bathrooms. The design of a building to avoid 12-month operation of various building components does not imply a decrease in equipment needs. However, there will be more opportunities for innovative building system equipment as larger numbers of smaller equipment units are required in a building.