Automation of Historical Buildings: Historical Building Information Modeling (HBIM) based Virtual Reality (VR)

Abstract. Every civilization's constructed legacy, identity, and history require the cooperation of several specialists and a historical database to be preserved and passed on to future generations. The difficulties of maintaining and preserving these old buildings have been successfully handled by the integration of contemporary technology. Historical Building Information Modeling (HBIM), a branch of BIM that deals with the complexity of built heritage, acquires, manages, models, and documents specific data. Virtual reality (VR) provides the benefits of intuition, realism, and teamwork. Combining HBIM and VR improves historical building visualization, analysis, comprehension, and communication, resulting in a more effective conservation process. This paper, reviews the capabilities of VR and HBIM technologies, focusing on their impact when combined in heritage conservation practices. The aim is to determine the current state of development of VR technology in the field of existing historical buildings and to identify the challenges and limitations of its application.