Virtual Reality and the Built Environment

Like the first edition, the central question this book addresses is how virtual reality can be used in the design, production and management of the built environment. The book aims to consider three key questions. What are the business drivers for the use of virtual reality? What are its limitations? How can virtual reality be implemented within organizations? Using international case studies it answers these questions whilst addressing the growth in the recent use of Building Information Modelling and the renewed interest in virtual reality to visualize and understand data to make decisions.

With the aim of inspiring and informing future use, the authors take a fresh look at current applications in the construction sector, situating them within a broader trajectory of innovation. The new edition expands the scope to consider both immersive virtual reality as a way of bringing professionals inside a building information model, and augmented reality as a way of taking this model and related asset information out to the job-site. The updated edition also considers these technologies in the context of other developments that were in their infancy when the first edition was written - such as laser scanning, mobile technologies and big data.

Virtual Reality in the Built Environment is essential reading for professionals in architecture, construction, design, surveying and engineering and students on related courses who need an understanding of BIM, CAD and virtual reality in the sector.

Jennifer Whyte Royal Academy of Engineering / Laing O’Rourke Professor in Systems Integration at the Laing O'Rourke Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation, Imperial College London, UK.

Dragana Nikolic is Lecturer in Digital Architecture at the University of Reading, UK.