The Four Pillars of Immersive Technology at Arup

The approach used by our designers to fulfil clients’ aspirations during a project’s lifecycle.

Michael Galbraith is an Immersive Technology Specialist at Arup, based in Dublin. Michael works on projects across a range of disciplines in Arup’s Europe Region – these range from real-time screen-based applications, extended reality (XR), 3D immersive and sensory experiences as well as storytelling, data capture and photomontages. Following two years’ experience at Arup in London, he moved to Arup in Dublin in 2020 to help set up the Immersive Technology team.

The Immersive Technology team at Arup works on visualisation projects that aim to leverage design data for the public, investors and policy-making audiences to aid communication, decision-making and engagement. Using real-time game engine software, the team currently utilises all aspects of interaction design within extended reality (XR) to create userfriendly experiences. Our approach to using technology is fluid – essentially, we often use technology and techniques from industries outside of AEC to help showcase the best of project design data and to offer clients a new perspective on their projects.

Key benefits of immersive technology:

• Unlocking the potential for multidisciplinary collaboration

• Strengthening bids and communication of design ideas

• Making more informed engineering decisions that help to minimise risk

• Better planning throughout the project lifecycle

• Training field teams in a safe manner

• Improving project coordination efficiency

• Optimising the operation and maintenance of BIM models

Immersive technologies enable the holistic, dynamic and visual presentation of a project, improving accuracy before spaces are made a reality, and crucially, before mistakes may be ‘built-in’. Presenting our work at the highest standards to our clients is a fundamental part of what we do. The Immersive Technology team focuses on the following four pillars to help get a better understanding of clients’ requirements and expectations during the project lifecycle:

1. Powerful storytelling: Developing conceptual ideas and experiences for clients and stakeholders.

2. Objective decision making: Using design data to aid communication, decision making and engagement.

3. Interactive platforms: Establishing which immersive technology best suits the project brief for the client.

4. Human-centred experience: Bringing groups of people together to experience extended reality (XR) throughout the lifecycle of a project.

Hear more about The Four Pillars of Immersive Technology during Michael Galbraith’s presentation at the BIM Coordinator’s Summit 2022, taking place this September 8th at the RDS, Dublin, Ireland.

Arup recently opened a new virtual and augmented reality room in Dublin to support the Immersive Technology team called The HIVE (Human Immersive Virtual Environments). Through immersive visual experiences and augmented realities, staff members can interact with their designs to enhance the accuracy and overall quality of their projects and clients and project stakeholders can make more informed decisions. The team looks forward to continuing to push the boundaries of immersive technology at Arup with the HIVE as a centre of excellence, enabling staff members to acquire knowledge and competencies and expand their skillsets.

Using BIM in the building construction industry is not an option anymore. It is not a luxury or dedicated for big scale companies only. Therefore, any firm (consultant, contractor or owner) that need to keep their chances in the completion and to have a strong exist in the engineering market has to be implementing BIM within their project.

Implementing BIM newly at any firm is not a hard thing and it is not very easy too. Some companies judge the BIM benefits after having a bad experience in using BIM but this is mostly happened due to the mistakes that happened while the implementation. Following are some common & famous mistakes that some of the companies went through while implementing BIM.

First of all, when you had a chance to do a project in BIM do not refuse it and do not get panic. Assigning a BIM consultant (third party) to help you doing the job is a good decision that you may take. However, while having a BIM consultant don’t let them do all the work for you without getting involved. This will let you miss the opportunity to start set up your BIM staff, in addition that you will not be cable of reviewing the output received from your BIM consultant and you will find yourself submitting the BIM work to your client blindly and take the risk of the result for the feedback.

To make a successful BIM implementation, the key word is ‘Good Training’. Do not under estimate the value of giving your staff a well-prepared training. This can be done by physical attendance or online training but do not leave it to the employee self-training as this will take more much time which usually not available and not accepted at companies due to the work load.