VR as design management tool.

This Ph.D. research aims to support the development of the Beta version of a proprietary Virtual Reality system and demonstrate the relevance of this technology as a medium for the design management practice in the realm of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC). Through an extensive literature showcase, this work set the base for its narrative, highlighting the increasing interest of the AEC industry towards Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) and their growing implementation in various processes, demonstrating their potential to significantly alter and improve working practices and outcomes within the industry. Reasoning on the already demonstrated added value that Building Information Modeling represents for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction, this Ph.D. highlights the benefits offered by implementing XR technologies onto BIM within Common Data Environments (CDE), focusing in particular on the trinomial VR-BIM-CDE. It is on this premise that the research sets out to explore the potential of the Virtual Reality system called usBIM.Reality, developed by the Italian software house ACCA Software for its proprietary CDE usBIM.Browser, and to propose a matrix of recommendations for its improvement based on feedback generated during simulation tests of design management tasks on the BIM model of an actual under-construction project. The research highlights the iterative process involved in evaluating and refining the application, beginning with hardware configuration tailored to meet VR's computational demands and proceeding through several design coordination sessions. These sessions facilitated the identification of software issues and their categorization into groups related to program logic, user interface, graphic presentation, and modeling capabilities. Special emphasis is placed on the hardware and software setup, detailing the selection of an Intel® NUC11 i9 with a GeForce RTX™ 3060 GPU and Oculus/Meta Quest 2, underscoring the technical groundwork for effective VR rendering. The iterative exploration and testing phases culminated in the development of a Recommendation Matrix, offering targeted suggestions to enhance the software's usability and efficiency in architectural workflows. This matrix serves as a structured feedback tool, assisting in the integration of solutions to improve design coordination, measurement accuracy, and overall workflow efficiency within the VR environment. The thesis concludes with significant insights into VR's capacity to augment design management practices, advocating for future research and practical implementations that harness extended reality technologies. It envisages the expansion of XR-BIM systems for Common Data Environments (CDE), anticipating a paradigm shift in project workflow management through enhanced collaboration and accessibility of BIM information across various XR platforms. This vision heralds a new era of integrated, collaborative, and efficient design and construction practices facilitated by advanced VR and BIM technologies, setting a new benchmark for technological integration in the AEC industry.