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Combining BIM and Virtual Reality improves one of the core concepts of BIM: to foster the collaboration between different disciplines. In this paper we present two new approaches. One is the collaboration with BIM/VR in co-located as well as distributed Virtual Environments. Different aspects of collaboration are discussed and shown. The other new approach is the documentation of BIM/VR meetings. The documentation can be generated semi-automatically from within the Virtual Reality environment first for traditional office documents and second for the documentation directly in the BIM model. Initial tests with projects from practice as well as numerous interviews with practitioners have proven the relevance and benefit for practice.

Architecture always has an environmental impact. By using simulations, planners can minimize the environmental impact. Since simulations normally take a long time and thus only allow a very limited number of iterations, our project describes the setup of a close-to-real-time simulation technique. By dividing the simulation into smaller parts and running the software on clusters or massively parallel computing platforms, first results are available within several seconds, reasonable results below one minute. In order to make this tool easily accessible to specialists and laymen, a tangible user interface provides an intuitive interaction method. The results of the simulation can be visualized and interacted with in different virtual environments. Limitations, mainly automatic grid generation, shape recognition and computation power are discussed.

This paper reports on a research project oriented to support the communication for, and realization of a sculptural masterpiece within an urban context in the historic centre of Rome. The sculpture has been installed just a few months before the 2017 eCAADe, thus enabling conference participants to explore the final output in situ. While the whole process of creation of the art piece is outlined, our focus is on the description of implementing various technologies like laser scanning, Virtual Reality (VR) and Numerical Simulations that have been used to accomplish the relevant tasks. The general field of investigation is how digital tools and a VR approach to modelling, simulating and developing sculptural components of an artwork could facilitate the workflow between artist, client, designers, engineers, urbanists, archaeologists, art foundry fabricators and public authorities. Methodologically, an action research approach was adopted for this project, primarily for its ability to link between research and practice in order to solve a realistic multidisciplinary problem in its actual setting.

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