Human, building, and environment interaction in immersive virtual environment across the building lifecycle: A systematic review

Immersive virtual environments (IVEs), a technology for enhancing human-building-environment interaction (HBEI), have rapidly gained increased attention in architecture, engineering, and construction. However, due to fragmented approaches to lifecycle phases, the overall understanding of IVE applications remains limited. This review aimed to consolidate HBEI research within IVE, categorize research findings according to the building lifecycle, and suggest areas for further research. In this study, BERTopic was leveraged to enhances the traditional systematic review process with data-driven objectivity. This approach contributes by revealing the dimensions between topics that are often overlooked in existing manual screening processes. Following PRISMA, this review screened 1394 records in Web of Science and Scopus on January 2, 2025, and BERTopic was applied to identify 98 papers. The findings demonstrate that the design-phase research focused on visual and environmental comfort, design, and interiors. Construction-phase research emphasized BIM-based construction, safety, and education. Lastly, operation-phase research addressed occupant stress, thermal comfort, and emergency evacuation. These results suggested research directions for each building lifecycle phase and spatial and temporal expansion through building lifecycle phase linkages. Practical recommendations are expected to help designers, builders, and facility managers adopt immersive technologies to improve decision-making, safety, and user well-being.