Success stories

Interactive VR:
The new frontier for design
and safety in AEC
Real-world use cases
from top AEC firms
What’s inside
Sweden-based Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world.
U.S.-based Mortenson is a top-20 builder, developer, and provider of energy
and engineering services.

What do they have in common? They are on the cutting edge of using
real-time 3D to power interactive, immersive experiences in virtual reality (VR).
From design visualization and reviews to training and safety, these leading
firms are deploying this technology across a range of use cases and reaping
substantial benefits.

Read on to discover how VR can improve designs, reduce costs, and

even save lives.

3 — Mortenson: Better building designs and lower costs with VR

10 — Skanska: Fewer risks, safer workers with VR

Better building
designs and
lower costs
with VR
Mortenson

How Mortenson employs interactive

VR experiences for construction clients
 Mortenson: Building virtual
worlds for real results
The project How do you lessen the high costs and immense risks of construction proj-
Interactive VR improves
ects? Mortenson has found a way. By simulating new building designs – and
building design and construc-
tion for hotels, universities
showcasing other technology – in interactive 3D spaces, their customers can
and property developers fully visualize and engage with new virtual realities on their projects before
they begin. This means benefits like improved designs, faster iterations, higher
The goal
Help customers truly quality and lower costs.
experience, collaborate
and iterate on new Mortenson is a U.S.-based, top-20 builder, developer and provider of ener-
design projects
gy and engineering services. The company is privately held and has offices
Platform across the U.S. Their expertise is highly sought after for commercial building,
360 video & VR: HTC Vive, sports facilities, healthcare, renewable energy, virtual design and construction
Oculus Rift, Oculus Go,
HoloLens
(VDC), safety, and much more.

Team members
Years ago, Mortenson saw the value of integrating visualization technologies
4
into their design/customer experience offering and created a Virtual Insights
Location team. Since then, they have become experts in using Unity to deliver interac-
Seattle and Minneapolis, USA
tive virtual-reality (VR) and 360 video experiences for a wide variety of client
needs such as building-design reviews and sales and marketing initiatives.

Their VR customers include major brands and organizations such as Stone-

bridge Marriott Hotels, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania State University,
Kaiser Permanente, and the University of Washington Medical Center.

The results:

• Empowers customers and development teams to collaborate in real-time

3D design reviews
• Speeds design iterations through networked, interactive and at-scale
experiences
• Saves customers significant costs on large projects by identifying design
concerns before the construction phase
• Permits customers to sell their vision to stakeholders, prospective
students, and raise funds from donors

Hear what Will Adams and Marc Kinsman like • Enables Mortenson to easily output to VR and/or 360 video for
about interactive VR for client projects. 25+ devices and platforms

© 2019 Unity Technologies 4 | unity.com

Mortenson saw the potential for 3D
and VR innovation

Several years back, Seattle-based Will Adams and Marc Kinsman, Emerging
Technologies Developers at Mortenson, saw the value of VR and 360 video for
customer projects. The first Oculus headset was just out and Adams got in on
the ground floor knowing that Unity supported the platform.

“While in graduate school, I had researched the difference in spatial cognition

between monitor-based consumption of digital environments and immersive,
which at Mortenson led me to explore the idea of simulating buildings in VR
for our project teams,” Adams states. “At the time, I didn’t have much expe-
rience with real-time engines or programming, but I knew it would be worth
investing time in learning those skills.” Adams’ colleague, Marc Kinsman, was
also on board “because Unity’s big supportive community meant Unity would
be easy to learn.”

Taylor Cupp, a Project Solutions Technologist, is well known in the AEC

industry for his VR leadership and remembers the birth of virtual reality at
Mortenson well. “I worked with Will on the research he was doing while at the
University of Minnesota,” said Cupp. “I could see the potential value of offering
real-time simulation services to Mortenson customers. Will, Marc and Colin
Sandeman [another Emerging Technologies Developer] were able to rapidly
learn a new skill set from the video game industry and have been successfully
applying it to our business for several years.”

As Adams, Kinsman, Sandeman and colleagues on the Virtual Insights team

got up to speed on Unity, their first VR projects covered the basics of the new
3D space but not much more. “When we started, we were mainly focused on
simple virtual projects that customers could walk around in, but over the past
few years, we’ve realized how important it is to build interaction into these
environments for user engagement.”

Potential condo buyers

pre-experience the rooftop terrace
and city views in immersive 3D.

© 2019 Unity Technologies 5 | unity.com

 Laying the foundation with Unity
When Mortenson’s the Virtual Insights team begins a VR project, they bring
models from various design software through Rhino or 3ds Max to fix their
geometry and mappings, as well as to utilize their computational design tools
such as Grasshopper. They write most of their interaction code themselves,
but also use many tools from the Asset Store such as Photon. Internally,
they collaborate a lot, so they are all networked in Unity, which speeds up
development and problem-solving, but it also means that their customers
throughout the U.S. and in Europe can collaborate in real-time in these
custom VR spaces.

Due to the wide-ranging customer deliverables, the team favors a number

of Unity features for their projects, such as the C# API. “We can do pretty
much anything we want with the API. It gives us confidence when we’re doing
proposals because even if the customer wants something we’ve never done
before, we know the API will help us deliver it,” says Adams.

As their projects near the finish line, Kinsman says they like how effortless
it is to output to multiple platforms. “We’ll jump between Oculus Rift and
Oculus Go, the HTC Vive and HoloLens – and we’ve done some stuff for
mobile devices too – so using Unity as the base allows us to ‘right fit’ the
hardware for the project, and that’s been quite beneficial for us. From the
same development platform, we can target whatever’s needed for the project.
We don’t have to learn anything new and we can accommodate a myriad of
customer hardware and platform requirements.”

When they start a new project, the team typically utilizes the newest version
of Unity. And as part of their ongoing R&D, they regularly upgrade to the
latest versions to leverage new features, such as the Scriptable Render
Pipeline (SRP).

“On the Stonebridge Marriott project, our

Unity-created VR simulation saved the customer
$45,000 on the physical mockup alone, while also
giving them much latitude for iterating over
multiple project changes that allowed them to
quickly identify and fix gaps in the design.”
– Marc Kinsman, Emerging Technology Developer, Mortenson

© 2019 Unity Technologies 6 | unity.com

Customers reach new heights with
VR and 360 video
Doing around 20 Unity-based projects a year has given the Mortenson team
a lot of VR and 360 video experience for many top-tier customers, including
some of the largest property developers, hotel chains, and universities in
the U.S. “Generally, we see two different types of interactive 3D use cases to
create for these customers,” says Adams. “They either want to do an at-scale
building-design review or a sales & marketing initiative, all aimed to improve
designs, faster iterations, higher quality and lower costs.”

For example, some of Mortenson’s projects in this space include immersive

VR simulation and 360 video of a new downtown Marriott hotel, as well as
a top-floor amenity level and a complete apartment in Seattle for AMLI, a
developer of luxury residences throughout the U.S.

Leveraging Unity, the key value that the Virtual Insights team brought to
all these projects was fully fledged, interactive experiences that allowed
stakeholders to collaborate on the designs of their new spaces long before
anything physical was built.
See how these Mortenson building
projects came to life:
“Customer stakeholders enjoy seeing and getting inside a full-scale, prelim-
inary version of their new building or interior feature. And once in the virtual New corridor in a downtown hotel
environment, they really respond to the look and feel, so it’s great to see their
Top top-floor amenity level of a
teams collaborating in real-time as they experience and interact with the
luxury apartment
different elements,” says Adams.

© 2019 Unity Technologies 7 | unity.com

As for universities, Mortenson’s customers wanted to both share a new
design with administrators/faculty and demo it to attract potential do-
nors and recruit students. For instance, they created immersive experi-
ences that included a centerpiece climbing wall in a university athletics
center for Penn State and the main lobby and exterior of Bucknell’s new
academic wing.

While in the VR space, typical customer discussions focus on room

dimensions, aesthetics, functional systems, and workflow efficiency. See the value Mortenson brings to
“Well before a physical mockup is built or materials ordered, the Uni- university clients:
ty-created VR experience gives everyone a great opportunity to discuss Penn State University’s Rock Wall
and iterate on the design,” says Adams. And for larger projects, the and Intramural Field
team may have to go through numerous versions to address all stake-
Bucknell University’s new
holder considerations or concerns. “Having everyone in VR at the same
academic wing
time speeds up decision-making and eliminates ambiguity as to what
spaces will look and feel like.”

Many concrete benefits flow from virtual projects

In terms of building-design reviews, Mortenson’s Virtual Insights team has
delivered substantial value for its customers. Courtesy of their interactive VR
pieces, customers have enjoyed huge savings by avoiding major flaws and
frustrations long before the backhoes or cranes swing into action.

Their customer at Bucknell University, for example, identified a design concern

that would’ve been extremely costly to fix at the construction stage. While the
virtual space was built exactly to spec, once immersed in VR, the customer re-
alized that a new corridor felt too narrow because of the location of a column.
Catching this issue in VR saved them more than $500,000. Ken Ogawa, their
Associate VP for Facilities and Sustainability, had this to say about Morten-
son’s VR project: “Finding and avoiding issues has paid for this effort at least
10x already.”

© 2019 Unity Technologies 8 | unity.com

 On another project, Heather Mann, a Senior Lead Interior Designer at Design
Force, worked with the Virtual Insights team on the Stonebridge Marriott
project: “We were able to save an estimated $45,000 on the physical mockup.
Furthermore, the VR approach let us iterate over design changes, expose and
address gaps in the design, and ensure project stakeholders understood the
impact of the decisions they made.”

Finally, at Kansas State University, Laird Veatch, the Executive Associate Ath-
letic Director, credits the VR review process for saving them $375,000 on new
lockers in their sports facility. “The VR experience gave a true perspective on
the depth and feel of the space that other renderings could not provide . . . it
allowed us to evaluate every component of the assembly to ensure the budget
would be met and a high level of quality maintained.”

So with these tangible customer benefits, it’s not surprising that Unity’s flex-
ibility, wide platform support, and extensive ecosystem – such as the sup-
portive community and Asset Store – have quickly made it Mortenson’s go-to
platform for bringing great value and delivering important design-validation
benefits for their university, hotel, and building-developer customers.

“We built the Bucknell University project in Unity exactly to the

design specs. While exploring and ‘walking’ in the new space
in VR, the customer realized the hallways felt too narrow. Upon
review, they saw that a column in the main corridor was to
blame. While easily detected and fixed in virtual space, this
flaw would’ve cost them over $500,000 to fix during construc-
tion. Unity’s great tools and high fidelity saved the day!”
– Will Adams, Emerging Technology Developer, Mortenson

Prospective buyers walk around and interact with fully realized VR spaces.

© 2019 Unity Technologies 9 | unity.com

Fewer risks,
safer workers
with VR
OutHere and Skanska

How Skanska boosted its

construction-site safety through
Unity-based VR, created by OutHere
 Skanska and OutHere:
Delivering real safety benefits
with virtual reality
Every day, job sites change. What was safe yesterday may be dangerous to-
day. So how do companies like Skanska help their workers be more aware of
The project
unseen risks and avoid danger? Collaborating with creative VR and AR agency
Step into Safety – Virtual
Reality Training OutHere, Skanska implemented a Unity-based VR experience into their stan-
dard worker-safety training program for major benefits.
The goal
Increase worker awareness
of safety factors on job sites Collaborating with Sweden-based Skanska, the fifth-largest construction com-
pany in the world, creative VR and AR agency OutHere developed highly realis-
Platform
tic virtual-reality scenarios for Skanska’s employee safety-training program.
VR: HTC Vive

Team members OutHere’s mission to create unique immersive experiences comes from their
5 (Skanska) and 6 (OutHere)
deep experience and passion for creativity and technology, and they challenge
Location themselves every day to find the magic moments where VR and AR can make
Gothenburg, Sweden a real difference in people’s lives. The team’s track record includes award-win-
ning VR projects for global brands such as Volvo Cars, Reebok, Dior, OnePlus
and Husqvarna.

The results:

• Increased worker awareness of job hazards

• Fewer accidents by creating safer worksites
• Boost in worker productivity

Hear what OutHere’s Filippos Arvanitakis and

Martin Kraftt think about VR for safety training.

© 2019 Unity Technologies 11 | unity.com

 A creative partner with deep Unity and VR roots
When Skanska was considering a partner to integrate immersive VR safety
scenarios into their standard day-long training program, they identified Out-
Here, a small, highly talented creative studio as a major contender. OutHere’s
principals have a substantial background in conceiving and delivering all man-
ner of film, 3D, motion graphics and VR/AR experiences.

OutHere also has a considerable Unity skill set. Peder Sandqvist, Filippos
Arvanitakis and Martin Krafft founded the company in 2017 after working
together since 2013, creating award-winning VR for global brands, including
doing real-time VR projects in Unity. Account director Linda Grådal, who head-
ed up her own film production company prior to joining OutHere, had done
many high-end, real-time VR/AR projects in Unity too. Their combined exper-
tise made OutHere a natural choice for the Skanska project.

“Unity is on the bleeding edge of VR/AR, which gives us so many opportuni-

ties to realize our vision. It’s really helped us as creators. It’s easy to use, and
simple to find new developers when we need them. With Unity we have the
ultimate tool to quickly transform our ideas into unique, ‘living and breathing’
virtual worlds that speak directly to the heart,” says Krafft.

VR can reduce real-world accidents and injuries

For this project, Skanska had a very human goal: To reduce accidents and cre-
ate safer construction sites. While they also employ many traditional methods
of accident-awareness training, they decided VR offered a new way to reach
their employees.

“We wanted to provide our workers with a new kind of training that could
fundamentally change their behavior. Filling out multiple-choice webforms
or listening to presentations is a good start but doesn’t reach their emotions
– where real behavioral change is possible. VR can do that because you can
put participants ‘at risk’ in a simulated environment without endangering their
lives. The decision for just VR was the possibility of linking behavioral science
with VR technology to achieve lasting behavioral change,” says Skanska’s
Tania Sjöberg, Project Leader, Step into Safety & Leadership Developer.

OutHere worked with Skanska to design VR scenarios that would challenge

workers, such as putting them in potentially risky situations and forcing them
to make the correct decision that would give them a tangible reward:
Avoiding a serious virtual accident or injury.

© 2019 Unity Technologies 12 | unity.com

Unity enables rapid VR prototyping
When they got the project go-ahead from Skanska, OutHere organized a
workshop with their workers to get them involved in the development of the
VR scenarios.

“For effective VR training, you really need the real-world perspective, so

who better to learn from than people exposed to risks every day?” says
OutHere’s Krafft.

They brought in employees to help with prototyping and to test the work-in-
progress for technical accuracy and realism, then iterated on the real-time
feedback they got, which Unity made very easy for them.

“Unity’s extremely high-quality visuals are unsurpassed, which is crucial for

immersive experiences,” says Krafft. “We love the power of the Unity engine
because it lets us develop quickly across all level design, sound placement,
and spatial components. We would bring the workers in, incorporate their
feedback and produce a new version in no time. Unity helps us deliver to our
clients faster.”

“Personally, what I am most passionate about in this pro-

ject is the possibility to eliminate these types of risks. We
should not be in danger at work. Workers should come
home injury-free, every day.”
– Tania Sjöberg, Leadership Developer, Skanska

Immersive VR for construction training can save lives.

© 2019 Unity Technologies 13 | unity.com

“With virtual reality, we can build emotional situations,
which is extremely important if you want to change
workers’ behaviors to improve safety. VR creates
awareness in a way that you can never do with
conventional lassroom or online training. Workers
feel it viscerally as we expose them to different risks
– without putting them in danger – so they become
more intuitively aware of such situations.”
– Martin Krafft, Technology Director, OutHere

Driving safety with storytelling

Because of OutHere’s wide background in film, 3D and other multimedia proj-
ects, and their five-year track record producing interactive VR scenarios, the
craft of creating convincing, fully interactive virtual worlds is a foundation in
everything they do.

“While VR can be all about showcasing amazing visuals, we believe that it’s
when you can reach people’s heart and soul that we can unlock the true power
of VR,” says Arvanitakis. “In this project we were ‘laser-focused’ on reaching
the workers emotionally. In order to achieve behavioral change, we try to use
VR to tap into the way that exposure to various dangerous situations can have
a lasting effect.”

“That’s where the new art of interactive VR is an extremely powerful tool. It’s
not traditional, linear storytelling. It’s a new way to communicate, more like
‘living the story.’ We start by immersing them in a believable, user-centric
environment they recognize, then we expose them to risks that trigger their
emotions,” says Grådal.

And the virtual decisions that workers make during their VR training will have
lasting real-world benefits such as fewer workplace accidents and injuries.

“If we experience things in 3D it leaves a stronger impression when it comes

to learning important lessons about safety. It’s the best method we have as
of right now to expose someone to a risk situation without putting them in
danger,” concludes Max Allström, Production Manager at Skanska.

© 2019 Unity Technologies 14 | unity.com

Unity for AEC
Unity is the creator of the most widely used real-time 3D development
platform, giving developers around the world the tools to create rich,
interactive 2D, 3D, VR and AR experiences across the building lifecycle.
Unity’s technology is used by more than half of the top 50 AEC companies.

© 2019 Unity Technologies 15 | unity.com

unity.com/solutions/aec