A virtual model introduced visitors to the renovation plans for the Lahti government office building

Senate Properties commissioned Sweco to prepare an illustrative VirtualSite model of the renovation plans for the Lahti government office building. Virtual reality brought the facilities to life and provided more than 70 users with an opportunity to comment on the future solutions at exactly the right time.

Senate Properties is at the forefront of the construction industry in many aspects, including digitalisation. At the start of 2022, Senate Properties started planning the renovation of the Lahti government office building. The plan was to engage various groups of users in the development of the new office concept sufficiently early on.

“The Lahti government office building is one of our first projects involving a shared government office building, which is why we couldn’t present the concept with the help of previous sites as we normally do,” says Construction Project Manager Juha-Pekka Peltonen from Senate Properties. In his opinion, illustrations alone leave many open questions that are not addressed until during site visits carried out six months later.

He thinks that utilising the VirtualSite model developed by Sweco was important in the initial stages of planning, as it allowed for user engagement and change management. “You should commission a model as soon as the first drafts are complete. It will help you discuss the right matters with the users early on.”

Virtual model walkthrough as a turnkey service

For Senate Properties, it was an absolute requirement that the high-quality virtual presentation of the facilities was provided by Sweco as a turnkey service. “I think that it’s the only effective way,” Peltonen emphasises.

Senate Properties and Sweco organised the presentation sessions together, with Senate Properties focusing solely on presenting the facilities, while Sweco delivered the necessary equipment and software, ranging from computers to VR headsets. “We also provided technical facilitation for the sessions, allowing the users to focus on the facilities instead of the technology in the background,” says Sweco’s Product and Sales Manager of VDC Services Niko Vironen. The users received guidance on navigating the virtual model, as the situation was new for many of them. Feedback was also collected from them.

A total of three model rooms were selected for the virtual presentation. “There is no sense in modelling the entire building, as the virtual tour has to be kept reasonably succinct for the users,” Vironen says. The model presented the first floor lobby, cafeteria, customer waiting rooms and customer service rooms. The model also included one work area and one meeting room. The virtual model offers a realistic representation of the different materials, lighting, furniture and colour scheme. “For example, the wooden surfaces stand out from the concrete surfaces, and the painted surfaces are distinguishable from the green walls.”

Vironen says that there are two clear applications for virtual presentations: technical inspections by professionals and virtual presentations for end users. Inspections by professionals focus on the implementation or functionality of the structure, whereas making the virtual model user-friendly is more important when presenting the model to users. The virtual model may also include alternative colour schemes that can be switched with one click. “The scale can also be changed from within the model, allowing daycare centre premises to be examined from a child’s point of view, for example.”

More than 70 users gave concrete feedback about the facilities

Over the course of two days, the virtual model was visited by more than 70 future users of the government office building from organisations such as the Employment and Economic Development Offices (TE Offices) of Lahti, the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland (ARA), the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) and the Finnish Tax Administration. No one needed prompting to put on a VR headset. “The government employees approached the new technology with a very open and unprejudiced mind,” says Vironen, delighted.

The experience of the space was so realistic that many of the users also walked around the room, trying to open doors or feel the softness of the carpeting with their feet. This was also Juha-Pekka Peltonen’s first time using a virtual model. “I was positively surprised by how well it engaged users in the planning process and demonstrated elements of which even I didn’t have a clear picture based on the drawings. I now have a much better picture of the overall project.”

The users provided concrete feedback on elements such as the facilities’ colour scheme and the implementation of the restaurant as a new type of open solution. “Paper drawings didn’t convey it properly,” says Peltonen. He thinks that the model allowed users to provide early input on many elements that could no longer be changed later on during site tours. “For example, we decided to remove some of the glass partition walls on the office room floors to add more open space according to the users’ wishes.”

A 360 virtual tour refreshes memories of the facilities

Sweco’s VirtualSite service allows a guided virtual tour to be created based on a virtual model. Together with a feedback request, the users of the government office building were sent a link to the Smart Drawings 360 service to refresh their memory of what the facilities look like via a web browser. “So far, roughly 200 users have taken the opportunity to take a look at the facilities via the service,” Vironen says.

This experience encourages Senate Properties to also use virtual models in the future. “The more unusual or specific the facility, the greater the benefits offered by a virtual presentation,” Peltonen says. “I already have one reform school project in mind where the users are confused about certain functionalities and dimensions. A virtual model will definitely come in very useful.”