BuildingCloud’s Experience enables teachers and students to virtually explore their future school

Staff and students get to explore their future school, Sigfridsborgsskolan in Nacka kommun, through BuildingCloud’s Experience. It is an interactive virtual reality of the digital twin, making it possible to visualize, review and develop projects collaboratively. Through a realistic experience and an easy-to-use interface, all project stakeholders can get involved and supported with insights.

BuildingExperience has made it possible for the staff and students at Sigfridsborgsskolan, a school in Nacka Kommun, to tour the entire building even before construction is complete. This solution is especially valuable during the covid-19 pandemic, allowing teachers and students alike to explore their future school without ever needing to leave their homes. Teachers can explore the features and designs of the classrooms, work and break rooms and other spaces. The students can meet up and check out their classrooms and school yards. The staff can plan the furniture by measuring spaces and test walkthrough timing throughout the building. All streaming in the web-browser; with no additional software or plugins required. “Being able to walk around the school virtually gives a completely different insight than just looking at a drawing. It gives a much greater sense of the building, the rooms and the environment. The game is a very nice way to present a building, in this case Sigfridsborsskolan, in a modern way. The game gives teachers and educators the opportunity to 'visit' the school with the pupils before the moving in takes place. This creates a great understanding that comforts the pupils before a major change. The game also attracts pupils to 'visit' the school themselves in a fun way and in a medium that the pupils are used to. The game offers great opportunities!" says Anne Sjö principal Älta rektorsområde.

Most people learn best through direct experience and there are some aspects of a building’s design that are hard to really understand until they actually take shape. Virtual reality provides the means for multidisciplinary teams to collaborate, empowering all involved parties to create better buildings. BuildingExperience’s virtual reality makes it possible to actually enter the space, walk through and inspect every detail, even before construction has begun, where conflicts and mistakes can be identified and solved, saving both time and money. During the design phase, collaboration is a crucial element, which enables project stakeholders to experience, review and evaluate design ideas together, simultaneously, in the virtual experience on mobiles devices, desktops or with VR glasses. “We have used BuildingExperience in all our school projects in Nacka that were part of Nacka Strategisk Partnering (NSP), which is a long-term form of cooperation between NCC and the Municipality of Nacka and included 14 projects in total. The goal was to minimize barriers and discuss building designs with the teachers. In the last five years I showed our building designs to all teachers using the BuildingExperience to get feedback. Today we can finally experience the virtual Sigfridsborsskolan together with teachers and students, in multiplayer from anywhere.” says Sven Staiger senior architect and CEO of the Scharc group.

The information available in BuildingExperience comes directly from the IFC model (BIM) or the BIM design tools. With BIM as part of the digital twin, BuildingCloud’s goal is to connect real world data even to BuildingExperience, including sensor data such as temperature, moisture, air quality and sound. This technology can be used to design and build better buildings with reduced costs by using collected and analyzed data to improve planning, by monitoring buildings during their life cykel.