The evolution of information flows in construction projects: a contemporary study on the embracing of Augmented Reality

The successful completion of a construction project involves the collaboration of various stakeholders which generates extremely exhaustive and varied information. Consequently, the effectiveness of the information flows ominously impact the strong work relationships between project stakeholders. Even though various adversarial effects to the construction project management threshold; cost, quality and time, are triggered by disordered information trails, numerous barriers for the effective information transfusion stay as a grey area. As an innovative tide towards overpowering the information management barriers in a conventional construction project, execution of Augmented Reality (AR) has been highlighted by scholars. Even though AR is already being incorporated in industries like automobile and aviation, it has not yet been considerably executed in the construction industry. Therefore, to exploit the potential of AR to improve information management, a qualitative research approach was incorporated. The extensive literature synthesis revealed the sustainability to adopt AR in the construction industry while highlighting the associated barriers in its pathway. In conclusion, the AR implementation for mitigating the barriers was evaluated and it indicated on AR’s promising nature for such mitigation. This study will be an initiative to integrate the conventional construction environment with AR to enrich the efficiency of project information management.