Technology is evolving at a rapid pace. One of these technologies; Virtual Reality (VR) has seen considerable hype these past couple of years. It is anticipated that VR with blockchain will be the internet 2.0 and revolutionise how we work and communicate with each other. Whilst there is rapid development by the gaming industry in VR, architects are not far behind in making sure they can render and present their designs to clients in VR. This gives clients the opportunity to see the proposed building architecture in uber-realistic quality and do a walk through of the building before even the site is excavated. The building services industry however is far behind in adopting newer technologies and methods of practice.

Whilst the industry and government battle over if BIM should be compulsory, VR will change the entire conversation. It would be like arguing if one should install traditional landline cables or fibre optics for telephones whilst mobile phones change the whole way we communicate. So, the question is simple, what happens when VR becomes the platform to work on? It would be like smart phones arriving with apps available for gamers and architects but no app for building services engineers! This is precisely what we are trying to do at BISPA. We are creating a platform in VR where designers can design their plantrooms; pipe, valve, pump, joint… one component at a time – imported from BIM. The final design will not only allow the designer to populate a bill of materials with just one click but also simulate the system performance, understand spacial aspects of the system, do conflict identification, do iterative design updates and so on. The possibilities really are endless.