# Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) Framework: A Current Review, Update and Discussion
## 2 Background  
### Beginnings of Virtual Design and Construction  
VDC is a project management framework developed in 2001 at the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE) at Stanford University [12]. VDC aims to improve construction projects' planning, design, construction and operation through combined management via objectives, collaboration methods, production management and digital technologies. VDC is also a framework that motivates research and development strategies to improve reliability, productivity, innovation and sustainability in construction [13]. VDC's origin is based on the composition of product, organization and process (POP) models [14; 15]. [PERSON] et al. [16] stated that construction projects are undertaken due to a client's specific need. Designers should create a conceptual product solution (product model) based on this requirement. The product model will only become a reality through construction, so the construction plan (process model) is required for project success. Finally, the team should be hired and organized (organization model) to develop product and process models and execute plans to achieve the project's objectives [16]. Thus, VDC was defined as the use of integrated multidisciplinary performance models of design construction projects, including the product (building), organization (design-construction-operation team) and work processes, to support explicit and public business objectives [17]. VDC models are virtual in order to be more interactive, flexible and visual, as they can be projected anywhere and in multiple ways by any person involved and based on one's need [18]. Moreover, these models represent the intentions and behaviors expected in the project [19]. According to CIFE, an integrated approach to such models is necessary to allow professionals to simulate the project in the form of POP to generate a fundamental change in the industry [20]. From a different perspective, a project manager (or team) can and should control three aspects of a project: the design of the product (P) to be built, the organization (O) that undertakes the design and construction and the design-construction process (P) that the organization must follow [12]. Product and process-related concepts, innovation, design, or modeling [9; 21] were commonly used before VDC. During its early days, VDC addressed the product model (usually a 3D model) as the graphical representation of information regarding the form/scope of the project. In the case of the process, VDC prioritized 4D modeling, which integrated the spatial-temporal aspect of the project and allowed stakeholders to visualize the general plan or current state of construction [17]. However, one of VDC's modern approaches is the organization model, which emerged from the need to solve industry fragmentation and integrate design and construction. VDC attributes much of its organizational focus to the influence of the work of Professor [PERSON] and his research team's studies in the Virtual Design Team (VDT) during the 1990s [18]. The VDT model focused on analyzing the performance of a work team, given a particular organizational structure. In addition, VDT allowed for predictive calculations and provided communication tools to achieve the objectives proposed by the organization [22; 23; 24]. There is also the previous work of [PERSON] regarding the integration of design and construction. The objectives have varied between defining integration [6], establishing different levels of integration [25] and reducing productivity inefficiencies caused by vertical and horizontal fragmentation in the organization [26]. The interactive workspace research influenced the formalization of VDC [27; 28; 29; 30] as the Extreme Collaboration Method (ECM) [31] developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The ECM proposes the execution of complex projects (such as the design of aeronautical missions) through exhaustive collaboration between those in charge of different areas, with high-performance tools and under the same working space.