Automated checking of building component accessibility for maintenance

Maintainability is not traditionally considered in the design of buildings. This is partly because design tools seldom facilitate the involvement of facility managers. They do not have rules for checking maintainability either. Consequently, buildings often have components or systems that are challenging to access for maintenance. To access the components, maintenance personnel suffer from falls, bruises, and cuts. This paper presents the development of an automated system for capturing the inputs of facility managers regarding the accessibility of building components for maintenance. The system integrates building information models, Microsoft azure and virtual reality for engaging facility managers in the design phase. The functionality and usability of the system are presented with an example of lighting and air-conditioning systems. The system provides a platform for mining and extracting knowledge from feedbacks provided by facility managers, which is significant for improving building design tools. •It is important to design buildings whose components can be accessed for maintenance.•A system that integrates BIM, virtual reality and cloud computing platform is proposed to facilitate this.•A proof of concept built on the system is provided.•Preliminary evaluation highlights possible improvements and barriers to the adoption of the developed tool.•Contribution of this work is in demonstrating the potential of the tool for reviewing accessibility of building components.