A workflow for managing building information and performance data using virtual reality: an alternative to BIM for existing buildings?

Abstract

Building information modelling (BIM) has carved a growing niche in the construction industry for the support of new building projects. The same cannot be said for existing buildings, where the prevalence of uncertain data, and unclear information, has been difficult to reconcile with the unambiguous nature of BIM parameterization. An opportunity to alleviate these challenges may have arrived from the recent boon of virtual reality platforms for navigating physical environments. This paper demonstrates how labeling of equirectangular images with data or text widgets is possible using publicly-available software libraries. A prototype is presented and tested on a building in Singapore.