From: "R.Hollands" Subject: ANNOUNCE: VR Centre for the Built Environment Date: July 16, 1996 Message-ID: A VIRTUAL REALITY CENTRE FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Systems to think with for Research, Applications and Training in Construction, Reatiling and Transport University College London (UCL) and partners have won an award in the Technology Foresight Challenge (organised by the Office of Science and Technology) to develop a Centre which will research and disseminate ways of producing built environments using virtual reality techniques. This will enable those who locate, design, construct, deliver and manage such facilities to explore ways in which the highest quaity environments can be produced. The ward is for 1m over 3 years, with an additional 2m being matched by the partners. The major problem facing the professions and industries involved in built environments projects is the fragmentary nature of their collaboration. Virtual reality techniques suggest ways of integrating their activities so that many problems of production are resolved. The centre will develop a series of demonstrator projects which will show how virtual reality techniques can be used to improve the location of facilities, their design and construction, and the business processes necessary for successful diffusion and implementation. These projects will become the core of an extensive training and advisory programme built around a unique partnership of data, computer software and hardware vendors, the constructio industry, architect annd engineering consulting firms, and industries with a focus on two of the major growth areeas involving urban environments - transport and retailing. The Centre will be based at the Bartlett School in University College London, in association with the Centre for Planning and Resource Control at Imperial College London. Those collaborating in this proposal include: BICC/Balfour Beatty; The Boots Company Plc; Bovis Construction Ltd; British Airports Authority Plc; British Telecommunications Plc; The Building Research Establishment; Data Siences; Division Ltd; Engineering Technology Ltd; ESRI (UK); Fulchrum Engineering Partnership; International Computers Limited Plc; London transport; Sir Norman Foster & Partners; Ordnance Survey; Ove Arup & Partners; Richard Rogers Partnership; J. Sainsbury Plc; Silicon Graphics Computer Systems; Stent Foundations; Trafalgar House Plc; VR Solutions Limited; WS Atkins Consultants Limited. For further information contact: Professor Michael Batty or Alan Penn University College London 1-19 Torrington Place London WC1E 7HD Tel: +44 171 391 1781; Fax: +44 171 813 2843 Email: m.batty@ucl.ac.uk or a.penn@ucl.ac.uk