Interactions and collaboration between parties in construction projects are often characterised by misunderstandings and poor information exchange. Game engine technologies, when employed with building information modelling (BIM), can help address these shortcomings. Quite often, the visualisation capabilities of BIM models are not explored fully partly because of their limited interactive capability. While game engines are powerful in visualisation and interactions in the gaming industry, the literature suggests a lack of understanding of the applicability of the same in construction. This study investigates the potential of the use of game engines in construction practice which culminated in a framework that can guide the implementation of the same in enhancing interactive building walkthroughs.

Researchers have explored the integration of BIM and Semantic Web to solve the problem of interoperability, and key to the Semantic Web is an ontology of a domain. To address interoperability challenges associated to cost estimating previous studies are yet to consider ontologies based on detailed measurement standards for building works. This study develops ontology for detailed measurement of building construction works. A design science research approach was employed for the study, appropriate tools and BIM software systems were identified and based on that, a methontology was used to develop the ontology based on the Building and Engineering Standard Method of Measurement 4 (BESMM4). BESMM4 is the Nigerian Standard Method of Measurement that provides fundamental guidance on the detailed measurement and description of building works. To make sure the ontology is fit for purpose, a descriptive logic-based reasoner was used to syntactically check the ontology while a 4D BIM modelling software (Navisworks) was used on a case study building to verify the proposed ontology.

Interactions and collaboration between parties in construction projects are often characterised by misunderstandings and poor information exchange. Game engine technologies, when employed with building information modelling (BIM), can help address these shortcomings. Quite often, the visualisation capabilities of BIM models are not explored fully partly because of their limited interactive capability. While game engines are powerful in visualisation and interactions in the gaming industry, the literature suggests a lack of understanding of the applicability of the same in construction. This study investigates the potential of the use of game engines in construction practice which culminated in a framework that can guide the implementation of the same in enhancing interactive building walkthroughs.

Despite the roles which small and medium construction enterprises (SMCEs) play in the Nigeria construction industry and the economy at large, extant research revealed that their participation in public procurement is poor as large firms have dominated the public procurement market. Previous studies have identified barriers responsible for their low participation and also suggested improvement measures. However, improvement measures best suited to dismantle/mitigate each barrier is not known. This study thus, assessed measures for improving SMCEs’ participation in Nigeria public procurement. The study collected data from 100 SMCEs in Nigeria, via a questionnaire survey. Mean/relative importance index was used for ranking the measures and ANOVA for checking difference between the studied measures. The result of the study revealed that E-procurement is the best measure for improving SMCEs’ participation in public procurement as it is best in dismantling barriers related to “problematic procurement procedure”, “lack of awareness of public procurement” and “legal issues/corruption”. Training which is suitable for eliminating barriers related to “lack of skilled employees and partners”, emerged as the second best followed by Division of Contract into lots that is best suitable for tackling barriers related to “lack of resources” which is contrary to previous researchers’ belief that it is the best measure. The study concludes that E-procurement, training and division of contract into lots are all suitable measures for improving SMCEs’ participation in Nigeria public procurement in their other of priority. The study’s findings show that it is desirous that the measures are applied together as none of these measures is singularly sufficient in dismantling all barriers to SMCEs’ participation in public procurement.

Virtual design and construction (VDC) is defined as the use of multi-disciplinary performance models for the purposes of design-construction projects. The use of VDC in construction projects enables the stakeholders to communicate and visualize the buildability and construction sequence which will impact on a project’s success in terms of delivery time and cost. This case study investigated the process of integrating different dimensions of information such as time scheduling (4D) and cost estimation (5D) with a 3D model to simulate a 5D Building Information Modelling (BIM) process. The study explored the application of VDC with 5D BIM for a commercial building, namely Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) Sungai Long City Campus. Through this case study, it enables comparisons of a virtual model and an actual construction in order to evaluate the advantages, practicality, and limitations of the VDC applications. The 5D model provided comprehensive information to manage the complex design-construction process by considering its timeline and cost. Six modelling stages were undertaken, namely inputting and modelling, clash detection test, time scheduling, quantification and cost estimation, virtualization, and walkthrough of the model. The results revealed that the practicability of the 5D BIM was influenced by the modelling effort, inter-operability, information output and limitations. The study also showed that VDC with 5D BIM significantly reduced the technical barrier for clients to participate in construction project, thus increasing the clients’ satisfaction of the works by bridging the gap of perception and actual outcomes from the construction.