Enhancing sustainable construction decisions: integrating BIM and VR for circular economy assessment

Abstract

The significant environmental impact of the construction industry requires a shift towards sustainable practices and circular economy (CE) processes. BIM-based VR has demonstrated great potential for allowing project teams to visualize and understand the complexity of projects and can be used early in the design process to establish a circularity perspective during the decision-making processes. This paper presents a framework named ‘DecideCircular’, which combines BIM and VR to enhance the selection of construction products and materials under a circular approach by providing an immersive and interactive solution. Employing a Design Science Research methodology, the study outlines the conceptual model approach together with the relevant indicators to include in the selection of construction products. Then, the framework is implemented in existing software and evaluated through a case study. Within the VR environment, stakeholders are able to check the different metrics (environmental, social, circularity and economic) of the building products and the entire building to optimize them in alignment with project objectives and sustainability considerations. The results demonstrate that the DecideCircular framework significantly enhances the accessibility and comprehensibility of CE-related information, leading to more informed and sustainable construction decisions.