ITcon Vol. 16, pg. 189-208, http://www.itcon.org/2011/13

Building interactive modeling for construction education in virtual worlds

submitted:June 2010
revised:September 2010
published:February 2011
editor(s):Turk Z.
authors:Kihong Ku
Department of Building Construction, School of Construction, Virginia Tech, USA
kku@vt.edu

Pushkar S. Mahabaleshwarkar
Master of Building Construction graduate, Virginia Tech, USA
pushkarm@vt.edu
summary:The number of design and construction professionals who are using Building Information Modeling (BIM) is rapidly growing and simultaneously the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) community is faced with the challenge of remote collaboration as offshore outsourcing continues to grow. While BIM facilitates information sharing between AEC professionals via purpose-built three-dimensional (3D), 4D design, analysis, evaluation, and documentation models, the communication of such 3D data-rich models if often fragmented and typically limits real-time communication and interaction of users who may be geographically dispersed and/or lack the modeling and analyses skills to interact with these models. AEC education needs to expose students to these emerging practice changes while finding new ways to more effectively address the fundamentals of design and construction. Virtual worlds – in this research the Second Life platform – have the potential to address the communication issues and effectively complement traditional teaching approaches and furthermore integrate with BIM to enhance construction education. Nevertheless, despite the potential benefits of virtual worlds, various obstacles exist. This paper presents the concept of Building interactive Modeling (BiM) which complements the capabilities of BIM with social interaction to enhance collaborative information and knowledge sharing. Role-playing scenarios developed in Second Life demonstrate specific opportunities of BiM.
keywords:Building interactive Modeling, Virtual, Remote Collaboration, Role playing, Scenario, Building Information Modeling
full text: (PDF file, 1.996 MB)
citation:Ku K, Mahabaleshwarkar P S (2011). Building interactive modeling for construction education in virtual worlds, ITcon Vol. 16, Special issue Use of virtual world technology in architecture, engineering and construction, pg. 189-208, https://www.itcon.org/2011/13