This paper contributes to a sustainable construction design management approach to increase the successful renovation rate of existing residential building stock. Indeed, coupling BIM with mixed reality can speed up and improve the quality of the renovation design processes, because it can display virtual models of alternative design scenarios superimposed over the existing physical facility. To this purpose, a sample of technicians was enrolled to test the reliability of this technology. A prototype was developed that enables cooperation among stakeholders and the implementation of an efficient workflow. The volunteers carried out real-life tests in a building demonstrator in Caceres (Spain) and filled in two questionnaires with their feedback. The results showed that an MR-based platform can involve interested stakeholders in the assessment of renovation design projects, that speeds up the decision-making process and increases the quality of those projects. Moreover, technicians can master the technology quickly, provided that it is included in the current renovation workflow and some technology gaps are covered. However, the main limitations of this study are that these findings are valid for building renovation design only, and the tests were performed in a controlled, yet full scale, experimental environment. Finally, this paper deals with a few open technical issues, such as the efficient alignment of holograms, transformation of BIM models into a format suitable for mixed reality applications and sharing feedbacks in an on-line repository to foster collaboration.

In the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, many efforts have provided remarkable contributions to construction planning and control processes during work execution. Nevertheless, frequent coordination issues among stakeholders and difficulties in dealing with unexpected events can be explained by the complexity featuring the construction sector. Several approaches to deal with this issue were investigated in the manufacturing area, among which this paper looks at the holonic approach as one of the most promising strategies. This study first analyzes the more fragmented and dynamic nature of the construction industry as compared with the manufacturing one. Secondly, it suggests developing a process-based holonic construction management system based on building information modeling (BIM) and a conceptual architecture for manufacturing control called Product Resource Order Staff Architecture (PROSA). The process-based paradigm ensures exploiting the benefits of BIM towards the development of sustainable and efficient regeneration methods of the built environment. Subsequently, a first management system prototype was developed and tested for the purpose of renovation works management. For the first time, results from an actual implementation of PROSA were applied to a real construction site, and its feasibility was assessed using the data on the field. Key performance indicators (KPIs) evaluated during the onsite demonstration confirmed a good performance of PROSA and the presented holonic approach, which contributed to the overall success of the energy efficient refurbishment project.