BIM-based immersive Virtual Reality for construction workspace planning: A safety-oriented approach

Effective workspace planning is known to play a crucial role in site planning and construction activity scheduling. This research seeks to enhance the usual manual workspace planning process by simulating a construction activity using both immersive Virtual Reality and Building Information Modeling technologies. Workspace planning is improved by eliciting experienced workers' knowledge and integrating it with construction managers' knowledge. The workers' knowledge is elicited both directly, by asking them for feedback during the activity simulation, and indirectly, by collecting and analysing position tracking data. The application of this approach in a real case study demonstrates its beneficial impact in terms of the sharing of planning and safety-related information between project partners and its formal representation in a Health and Safety Plan. •Sharing information among project partners is crucial to improve safety.•BIM and VR are used to integrate workers' and construction managers' knowledge.•Knowledge is elicited during activity simulations and by tracking worker positions.•The approach is applied to improve construction site workspace planning.•The benefits of this approach are demonstrated in a real case study.