Keywords

1 Introduction

Prefabricated buildings have gradually replaced traditional brick and concrete buildings in modern times, which is particularly evident in rural architecture. Building intelligent construction visualization platforms can promote the development of prefabricated buildings. Kozlovska M believed that the Fourth Industrial Revolution established an industrial platform based on information technology [1]. Safikhani S pointed out that building platforms required digital transformation more than ever before [2]. Apollonio F I took museum assets as an example and believed that a three-dimensional (3D) construction and visualization platform for museums needed to be established [3]. Shastri A argued that prefabricated buildings are a more convenient, environmentally friendly and efficient new technology [4]. Wasim M believed that prefabricated buildings could improve overall productivity [5]. O'Grady T M proposed that cash prefabricated buildings required BIM technology to assist [6]. BIM technology, as a new tool in architecture, has begun to be used to assist in prefabricated buildings.

In order to apply BIM technology, this article attempts to search for some relevant research from previous researchers. Begić H proposed that BIM technology is an innovative product in the industrial field [7]. Alzoubi H M believed that BIM technology is crucial for the project lifecycle [8]. Leśniak A believed that BIM technology can improve the automation level of construction, engineering, and construction projects [9]. Alizadehsalehi S believed that the integration of BIM technology and VR technology can improve workflow efficiency by enhancing consensus [10]. This computer-aided design technology, mainly based on 3D graphics, is very suitable for visualizing building platforms.

Based on previous research, the main focus of this article is on rural prefabricated buildings and the construction of a visualization platform, so that all participants in the construction project (including customers) can clearly and intuitively observe the construction process. Compared to directly improving the level of automation, this study can better improve building efficiency through the visualization of intelligent construction.

2 Characteristics of Rural Prefabricated Buildings

In today's rural areas, prefabricated buildings have gradually begun to replace brick and concrete structures and even more primitive brick and wooden houses. Dong J W pointed out that prefabricated building is a construction method where building components are first produced and processed in a factory, and then transported to the site for assembly and installation [11]. Promoting prefabricated buildings in rural areas can effectively solve the problems of housing construction in rural areas, and it also has many characteristics and advantages, making it capable of replacing traditional rural buildings. Wenfei P also pointed out that with the development of rural economy, the importance of architecture by rural people is increasing day by day [12].

Table 1. Characteristics of prefabricated buildings
Full size table

Table 1 shows many characteristics of prefabricated buildings. The construction of prefabricated buildings is very convenient and fast, because modular building materials are produced in the factory in advance and then assembled on-site, which can greatly shorten the construction cycle. The quality of these building materials can be guaranteed, as the production of building materials is carried out in advance in the factory, and the quality of building materials is strictly monitored during factory production. The materials used in prefabricated buildings are also mostly environmentally friendly, and energy-saving technologies are used during factory production, so, during assembly, energy consumption and pollution can be reduced. Ilhami R pointed out that Bandung City's policies impose strict environmental requirements on buildings [13]. Due to the separation of production materials and on-site assembly, rural homeowners pay less for labor costs and time costs. Of course, the most crucial thing is that prefabricated buildings have flexible customizability, because rural land and environment are not necessarily as flat as cities, so the design of building materials for prefabricated buildings facing rural areas is more flexible and diverse, and on-site assembly can also be tailored to local conditions.

In response to the energy-saving characteristics of prefabricated buildings, Li F D proposed two energy-saving effects for different types of building materials: light steel buildings and heavy steel buildings [14]. According to Table 2, it can be seen that although heavy steel buildings have less emission reduction compared to light steel buildings, they all have sufficient emission reduction capabilities.

Table 2. Emission reduction of two energy-saving schemes
Full size table

In Li Q's research, a comparison of carbon emissions between prefabricated and brick concrete residential buildings is statistically analyzed [15]. This comparison calculates the carbon emissions under different engineering classifications throughout the entire lifecycle of two types of residential buildings.

Table 3. Comparison of carbon emissions between two residential forms
Full size table

Table 3 shows the comparison of carbon emissions between two residential forms. It can be seen that in the three projects of reinforcement work, concrete engineering, and formwork engineering, the carbon emissions of prefabricated buildings are slightly higher than those of brick concrete residential structures, while other projects are all lower and the overall emissions are also lower. Backes J G believed that carbon reinforced concrete is one of the lowest energy input and emission options among various building materials [16].

3 Role of BIM Technology in Building Intelligent Building Platforms

As is well known, BIM has advantages such as information integration, 3D visualization, collision detection, engineering quantity calculation, time and cost management, and facility management. Guo J applied BIM technology in his research on energy-saving building engineering [17].

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Energy efficient building system based on BIM technology

Full size image

Figure 1 shows the overall framework of an energy-saving building system based on BIM technology. From its framework, it can be seen that the system is mainly divided into three subsystems: information collection subsystem, information organization subsystem, and information processing subsystem. The information collection subsystem mainly faces Party A and Party B, such as owners, designers, or construction teams, etc. This subsystem mainly includes material information, geometric information, component information, and operation and maintenance information. The information organization subsystem includes information encoding, information classification, information storage, and 3D energy-saving building information modeling. In the final information processing subsystem, it mainly includes resource management, construction process simulation, and site management. The simulation of the construction process mainly involves first conducting project progress monitoring, then conducting regular reports, confirming graphics and four-dimensional (4D) models, and finally conducting deviation analysis and process diagnosis.

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Progress management based on BIM

Full size image

According to Fig. 2, it can be seen that this engineering project also requires schedule management based on BIM technology. Firstly, it is necessary to develop a secondary engineering project schedule based on the overall plan, prepare and refine tasks, and negotiate and commit to a weekly work plan. At the same time, a draft plan needs to be negotiated. Afterwards, the task is officially carried out and collaboration is carried out through logistics management. If problems are encountered during the task execution process, feedback is given to the plan draft and the task needs to be redone. If no problems are encountered, the task completion is reported. Finally, the acceptance of the work is carried out and it needs to be ensured that it is fully completed. If it is completed, it is officially completed. Otherwise, the weekly work plan should be rechecked to identify and fill in any gaps.

BIM technology not only coordinates and arranges construction projects and manages progress, but also visualizes decoration construction to meet the needs of customers and designers. Wang P attempted to construct a 3D visual management system for decoration construction using BIM technology [18]. His research mainly focuses on feature extraction and information sampling of construction images to achieve visualization. Assuming that \(h(x,y)\) is the association rule set for information sampling; \(f(x,y)\) is the actual collected 3D construction information; \(\eta (x,y)\) is the interference term; \(g(x,y)\) is the fuzzy pixel value for construction information sampling, there is:

$$ g(x,y) = h(x,y) \times f(x,y) + \eta (x,y) $$
(1)

Based on Formula (1), the relationship between various elements can be found. After obtaining the fuzzy pixel values of construction information sampling, the construction of a 3D visual reconstruction BIM database can be carried out based on this foundation.

4 Construction of Intelligent Construction Visualization Platform

It is precisely based on BIM technology for intelligent arrangement and visual design of building construction and decoration that the construction of an intelligent construction visualization platform has a technological foundation. This article believes that the platform needs to integrate various sensors, monitoring equipment, and data analysis technology to monitor and analyze various indicators of construction projects in real-time, including construction progress, quality, safety, etc. By presenting these data and information in a visual manner, project managers can intuitively understand the status and progress of the project, and make timely decisions and adjustments.

In Zhang B L's research, building an intelligent construction visualization platform not only requires BIM technology, but also Internet of Things (IoT) technology [19]. IoT can empower various peripherals and entities with devices such as information sensors, positioning systems, or sensors, and connect them through the Internet, thereby intelligentizing all devices within the entire system and facilitating overall management. The intelligent construction visualization platform also needs to connect various building materials, construction tools, and contact terminals for staff or designers. Syed A S pointed out that the IoT can integrate different devices and technologies without human intervention [20].

Fig. 3.
figure 3

Application of BIM technology in intelligent construction management platform

Full size image

Application of BIM technology in the intelligent construction management platform is shown in Fig. 3. Three management directions have been derived based on BIM technology, namely intelligent construction management, intelligent security management, and green construction management. Intelligent construction management includes construction site layout, construction progress control, and visual disclosure, and intelligent security management includes material safety management, personnel safety management, and risk source control. The related work of intelligent construction management may directly affect the functional design of the platform, and even the final construction of the intelligent management platform.

This article believes that visualization platforms based on BIM technology require more display of building materials or building data parameters. Therefore, a visual display of furniture display parameters for a certain home decoration design is carried out, and the approximate effect is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4.
figure 4

Parameters of a visualization platform using furniture display as an example

Full size image

It can be said that whether in home decoration or construction, intelligent construction visualization platforms are extremely important for visualizing the parameters of building materials or equipment, because these contents can directly display important information about the current project to platform users, and these are also understandable to most users. Customers who lack professional knowledge may not be able to understand some highly specialized modeling renderings, so intelligent construction visualization platforms must ensure the foundation, universality, and comprehensibility of visualization content.

5 Conclusions

This article compares prefabricated buildings with brick and concrete buildings to prove that rural areas indeed require prefabricated buildings in order to better carry out new construction and renovation work. BIM technology, which excels in designing three-dimensional graphics, is utilized to assist in the design of an intelligent construction visualization platform, and ultimately a parameter diagram about furniture furnishings is designed, indicating that the most basic visual expression is the most important for customers. It can be said that the research in this article is specifically aimed at improving the construction work of prefabricated buildings in rural areas, and through visualization, the participants in the work can have a more intuitive understanding of the work situation, thereby improving efficiency. However, this article does not closely link the parameters with the display of the diagram, which can be considered a deficiency, but the design of this article still has some creativity.

Overall, an intelligent construction visualization platform based on BIM technology can inevitably provide good guidance for large-scale prefabricated buildings, and rural construction can also complete the construction work of the new era under such conditions. The prefabricated buildings studied in this article are mainly used in rural areas, so the rendering of complex terrain in some rural areas should become a direction for progress in BIM technology.