The construction industry faces high rates of accidents and injuries due to traditional risk identification methods, such as 2D drawings, manual inspections, and reactive assessments during construction, which hinder early hazard detection and multidisciplinary collaboration. Despite the potential of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) to improve health and safety (H&S) management, their integration for proactive design-phase applications remains underexplored.
This study develops and validates a BIM–VR workflow for early H&S hazard identification and management. Adopting a pragmatic philosophy and abductive mixed-methods approach, a literature review identified gaps in existing frameworks, informing workflow design using tools like Revit, Enscape, Navisworks, Vrex, and Autodesk Construction Cloud. The workflow was implemented on an anonymized real-project BIM model.
Quantitative validation against the construction-phase risk register showed over 80% of hazards were identified proactively. Qualitative assessment confirmed enhanced clarity and coordination in safety information. The BIM–VR workflow advances design-phase H&S by enabling immersive hazard review, metadata integration, and collaborative issue resolution, offering a replicable solution aligned with digital construction practices.
The increasing complexity of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) projects necessitates more effective communication among stakeholders and places greater demands on streamlining design information and workflows. This research aims to conduct a comparative study by integrating Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) into the design phase of construction projects using two VR platforms: Arkio and Vrex.
To this end, a framework with three core components has been developed: (1) a BIM model component, which contains the geometric, semantic, and orientation data of building elements; (2) a data transformation component, which transfers this information from the BIM environment into the VR platform; and (3) a collaborative design review component, which integrates BIM with VR and provides a set of functions to support collaborative design review.
The developed framework was applied to a case study to demonstrate its validity and practicality and to analyze the capabilities of Arkio and Vrex. The results highlight the potential of BIM–VR integration for improving cross-disciplinary collaboration and informed decision-making during the design phase. This research supports practitioners in incorporating BIM and VR into their design review workflows, helping to eliminate design errors caused by limited collaboration or inefficient communication.
Subin Thomas, SeyedReza RazaviAlavi, A. Suliman et al.· 2026: Transforming Construct...· 0 citations