XR (extended reality) environments have driven professionals in the construction industry to adopt advanced digital surveying and 3D modelling techniques, improving project quality and site management through enhanced visualization, accuracy, and precision. Photogrammetry and laser scanning have been crucial in the scan-to-XR process, enabling the development of digital twins (DT) throughout the construction lifecycle. However, converting survey data into usable models for immersive experiences requires expertise in digital representation and software development. Digital representation transforms raw data into functional models, yet challenges remain. Survey outputs typically feature high polygon counts for detail, which can overload XR applications, causing slowdowns and reducing fluidity, especially on devices with limited resources. Additionally, high-resolution textures further strain computational power and memory. Optimising these textures is key to balancing visual quality and performance. XR platforms like Unity and Unreal Engine demand specific rendering standards, and non-optimised models can fail to meet these, requiring further adjustments. This study aims to develop a pipeline for creating high-fidelity DTs of an ongoing construction site. Data is collected through photogrammetry and laser scanning, followed by model optimisation for XR applications. The optimised model is integrated into real-time platforms for interactive use, producing both VR and web-XR models. This pipeline will aid in construction-site management, safety inspections, and communication between stakeholders, contributing to DT technology and to the efficiency of the construction industry.
Advanced Deviation Analysis Visualization for BIM in Heritage Environment
This paper presents a methodology leveraging modern technologies such as BIM, laser scanning, and virtual reality to address challenges in maintaining historical buildings. The focus is on a scan-vs-BIM deviation analysis workflow, enabling the identification of modelling inaccuracies and structural issues by comparing HBIM models with point-cloud surveys. The proposed approach facilitates decision-making processes by providing an accessible and detailed visualization of results. The methodology begins with a structured BIM model and a corresponding point cloud. Using Autodesk Revit and a tailored Dynamo script, distances between building elements and their surveyed points are calculated and organized for compatibility with various platforms. The results are then transformed into interactive 3D visualizations using Python, where points are spatially and color-coded based on deviation values. The workflow integrates immersive technologies, such as virtual reality, to explore the results interactively and at real scale, enhancing insights beyond traditional 2D graphs and screen-based methods. This immersive visualization highlights critical details and supports improved decision-making in structural analysis and conservation efforts. The paper also discusses the potential for augmented reality to further enhance these visualizations, offering direct comparisons between BIM models, point clouds, and the physical building. With a BIM-based and open-source approach, the methodology ensures broad accessibility and reusability, making it a robust tool for deviation analysis and visualization in heritage conservation projects.
Automated Scan-To-BIM Methodology for Accurate 3D Modeling of Embedded MEP Systems
This paper presents an integrated methodology to enhance the detection, data acquisition, and modeling of embedded MEP systems in existing buildings, addressing the gap between as-built information and the need for accurate simulation models. The approach begins with a comprehensive digital survey of existing structures using LiDAR and Radar technologies to generate point clouds and accurately tag the coordinates of detected installations. These datasets serve as the foundation for constructing a precise 3D model in an EBIM environment. To automate data integration, a custom API was developed to cross-reference point-cloud coordinates with manual detections, ensuring accurate representation of all embedded systems. The resulting enriched EBIM model is further enhanced by importing it into the Unity game engine. Through the Vuforia augmented reality SDK, an XR experience was created, offering an immersive and interactive visualization of the 3D model and detailed MEP systems. This methodology demonstrates the potential of integrating advanced digital surveying, EBIM, and XR technologies to streamline building surveys and 3D model creation. The proposed approach not only improves accuracy and efficiency but also introduces innovative tools for design, construction, and maintenance workflows.
Scan-To-BIM-To-VR Processes for the Documentation and Valorization of the Defensive Fortifications in Piombino
The paper intends to explore the integration between Scan-to-BIM parametric modelling techniques and VR virtual systems to support activities of documentation, analysis, valorization, and popular storytelling of Architectural Heritage. In this sense, these themes have been deepened through a series of experimental HBIM applications conducted on the military fortifications of Piombino, and more specifically, on the case study of the defensive complex formed by the Rivellino and the Porta a Terra. Through the implementation of the HBIM model within game-engine platforms, the project aims at enhancing the historical heritage, favouring dissemination and interactive use through immersive virtual environments.
“Campus delle Architetture, del Design e della Pianificazione” Project: WebAR for Public Engagement
The design of the Politecnico di Torino “Campus delle Architetture, del Design e della Pianificazione” has an enormous strategic value, both for the reorganisation of the University and for the city dynamics, contributing to the overall development of the Po cultural axis. The transformation involved by the new campus will significantly impact the life of the area, radically changing its intensity through the daily flows of thousands of people and making the park an actual natural connective tissue. The communication project includes the realisation of events aimed at presenting the Campus to disseminate and popularise the outcomes of the realisation process to different stakeholders, showing a scale model of the area. Among the innovative features of the communication proposal is the superimposition of digital layers on the physical model for audience engagement through a webAR that activates a step-by-step journey with descriptions of different aspects of the campus project.
Artificial Intelligence and Extended Reality for Communicating the Uses of Natural Fibers in Building Construction: State of the Art and New Proposals
This contribution presents a digital framework to promote and communicate the use of natural fibers in building construction, developed within the “Circular Design for Natural Fibers” (CD4NF) project. The research addresses the limited application of advanced digital tools in this emerging field by proposing an integrated workflow that synergizes Building Information Modeling (BIM), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and eXtended Reality (XR). The core of the proposal is a flexible and modular platform built upon a structured material filing system that catalogs detailed information on various natural fibers. This platform utilizes BIM as a central data repository. An AI system, based on a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) model, enables users to query this complex data using natural language. XR applications provide an interface for visualizing and interacting with the BIM models and their associated information in real-world contexts. This approach aims to optimize key processes from material research and design to construction, enhancing decision-making, interoperability, and communication. The system represents a step towards a more efficient, circular, and sustainable construction sector by facilitating the informed adoption of natural fiber-based materials.
TIBER: Test, Interact and Build in Extended Realities
The aim of the research project “Modeling the Morphology and Dynamics of Roman Mediterranean Port Cities,” funded by the LABEX Intelligence des Mondes Urbains of the University of Lyon, is to reconstruct lost urban spaces of antiquity while facilitating possible interactions between two scientific communities often brought together in our field: archaeologists and architect-computer scientists. It focuses primarily on a collaborative and interactive environment allowing these communities to interact by jointly and incrementally formalizing the scientific hypotheses that will serve to reconstruct the studied urban and port spaces in three dimensions. The concerted formalization of an urban space at a given period requires numerous interactions: verbal exchanges, visual demonstrations, iconographic comparisons, and morphological hypotheses. It is nourished by expansive preliminary documentary work constituting a state of knowledge at a given moment. However, we believe that when it comes to collaborating between heterogeneous communities, whose words, descriptions, understanding, and interpretation of space draw from different visual and scientific cultures, 3D visualization alone—as detailed and eloquent as it may be—is unable to provide the same interpretative keys to different disciplines. Debates pertaining to synthetic images, for instance, may deprive those who fail to master digital tools of a nuanced space of expression, which can ultimately unbalance the interpretations and shaping of the studied spaces. We have therefore decided to reconsider the nature of this interaction space by reinventing the REACTABLE© (Reactable Project Homepage, https://reactable.com/, last accessed 2025/05/13.), which is essentially a backlit translucent horizontal surface on which tangible objects are placed in order to manifest the appearance of their digital 3D double on a large screen, for example. Echoing what D. Schön calls the “reflective conversation with the materials of the situation” characteristic of the mental disposition of individuals in situations of exchange and debate, we endeavor to enrich possible levels of interaction between transdisciplinary communities by using concept-objects belonging to the real world that allow each individual around the table to participate in exchanges bolstered by the same capacity for interaction.
Immersion Through Extended Reality as a Tool Applied to Wayfinding Inside Hospitals
The paper investigates the use of Extended Reality (XR), Artificial Intelligence, GPS technologies, and 3D modeling to improve wayfinding systems inside and around hospitals, especially for vulnerable users with sensory, cognitive, or motor impairments. The study proposes a multilevel immersion framework combining Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to guide users from urban-scale navigation to indoor hospital routing. The methodology integrates 360° scans, 3D models, geolocation systems, audio and visual guidance, VR glasses, touchscreens, and AI-based route optimization to create accessible navigation experiences adapted to different disability groups. The research develops a scalable navigation strategy structured across urban, environmental, and architectural scales, emphasizing inclusive healthcare accessibility and user-centered spatial orientation.
Augmented Reality Application for BIM Maintenance Feedback via Streaming Platforms
The paper proposes a BIM-based maintenance workflow integrating augmented reality, panoramic image tagging, visual programming, and data streaming platforms for facility management. The methodology combines 360° spherical photography, BIM models, Dynamo scripting, Python automation, Speckle streaming, Grasshopper, and Fologram AR interfaces to create a real-time feedback system for building maintenance. Users can report anomalies directly within panoramic virtual tours, while maintenance operators interact with the BIM model through augmented reality interfaces connected to the building database. The workflow enables automated synchronization between physical spaces and digital twins, facilitating damage detection, metadata updating, and collaborative maintenance operations through accessible mobile and AR devices.
Multisensory VR Experiences Based on Auralization and HBIM. The Teatro del Maggio in Florence
The paper presents an HBIM-based workflow for the development of multisensory virtual reality experiences integrating architectural visualization and acoustic auralization. Starting from laser scanner surveys and Nurbs-based 3D modeling, the research develops an HBIM digital twin enriched with material and acoustic metadata to simulate the sound behavior of theatrical spaces. The methodology combines TLS acquisition, semantic segmentation of architectural elements and materials, acoustic parameter classification, BIM data enrichment, and interoperability with Unreal Engine for immersive VR experiences. Through plugins and sound simulation systems, the virtual environment reproduces both the visual and acoustic perception of the theater, enabling users to interactively experience the architectural and acoustic heritage of the venue.