Interaction and Visualisation for Architectural Processes in Virtual Environments

This paper describes a demonstration system for visualisation of processes found in construction schedules of large-scale building projects. It was driven by plans to develop a new airport terminal building. The building model was virtualised and users were able to “step through” the various stages of its virtual construction. The system operates within a large screen VR theatre and allows several participants to explore and discuss relationships of the building architecture. We present a visualisation method and implement an interaction paradigm for control. This allows users to quickly navigate through the virtual building site and get an overview of the state of development. A complete implementation of the system will also allow users to change the order of a construction schedule and display the effects of this change on the project. This may be used in the early realisation of conflicts between different processes in the schedule.