Immersive technology and building information modelling (BIM) for sustainable smart cities

Research currently focuses on immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). However, there is limited exploration of their application in sustainable smart cities with Building Information Modeling (BIM), and there remains a lack of interdisciplinary integration within this domain aimed at fostering sustainable smart city development. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the development status of immersive technology and BIM in sustainable smart cities, identifying trends and research hotspots by employing a triangulation research method mixed with a quantitative method via bibliometric analysis and a qualitative method via content analysis to investigate the relationship between immersive technologies and BIM in sustainable smart cities. The results reveal a fragmented nature in the research on immersive technology and BIM in sustainable smart cities, with rapidly changing hotspots and new technologies following a cyclical pattern every 3 to 5 years. Two distinct cycles of growth were observed in the field over the last 10 years (2014–2023). The first cycle, from 2014 to 2017, represented modest growth, while the second cycle, from 2018 to 2022, showed rapid expansion, with the keywords AR, VR, MR, BIM, smart city, and smart city concept indicating the research hotspots. Immersive technologies and BIM, developed since 2017, have contributed to sustainable smart city construction. The emerging keywords AR, MR, and 360-degree VR have become research hotspots since 2021, particularly in collaborative construction. Future research trends include artificial intelligence, digitalization, AR, and MR, while building sustainability and intelligent construction have emerged as real-world applications. Additionally, this paper employs software tools to generate multidimensional knowledge maps to form a knowledge universe map at a “macro-knowledge” level followed by a “micro-knowledge” level comprising a standard knowledge system, such as lifecycle analysis, enhancing the objectivity and organization of the results and providing innovative references for future research.