HBIM and Immersive Virtual Reality Applied to Cultural Heritage: Digital Modeling of the Parliament Hall in Palazzo Carignano

In recent years, Historical Building Information Modeling (HBIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies have become transformative tools in cultural heritage preservation, enabling the documentation of critical historical data and enhancing public engagement with architectural heritage. This research presents an innovative HBIM-to-VR workflow that addresses two major challenges: modeling complex curved spaces without relying on advanced scanning technologies and facilitating accessible information transfer from HBIM to VR for users without programming expertise. Using Rhino.Inside.Revit, a detailed HBIM model of the curved Parliament Hall in Palazzo Carignano, Turin, was created by combining Rhino’s advanced surface modeling capabilities with Revit’s BIM environment, incorporating historical and material data. Element information from Revit schedules was exported as CSV files and dynamically updated using Power Query in Excel. The processed data was then visualized in Unity through a custom C# script generated with GPT assistance, enabling real-time interaction and exploration. The proposed workflow minimizes technical barriers while effectively preserving and presenting cultural heritage in an interactive VR environment.