CASE STUDY

Dura Vermeer Bouw en Vastgoed Amsterdam: Revitalizing an Amsterdam Icon with Augmented Reality

Company Type

General contractors

Industry Sector

Commercial and Residential

Project Type

Offices, Apartments

Executive Summary

Dura Vermeer Bouw en Vastgoed Amsterdam deployed GAMMA AR on the OKU Office and OKU House project in Amsterdam, a complex development combining the renovation of a protected historical building with the construction of new residential towers.

The OKU Office covers an area of 2,173 m² within a total floor area of approximately 7,500 m², while the OKU House consists of two towers with 324 apartments located behind the OKU Office. The close relationship between both structures made coordinated planning essential.

Working within strict preservation constraints while integrating modern installations created significant challenges for on-site teams. As is common in historical buildings, undocumented changes from past renovations, concealed elements, or unforeseen structural conditions could arise at any time — requiring design changes and increasing the risk of costly errors, rework, and delays.

To address this, Dura Vermeer used GAMMA AR to visualize BIM models directly on the construction site through augmented reality. By visualizing the BIM models during their daily walkdowns, the field teams could confirm constructability, improve trade coordination, and ensure correct execution.

Following the successful pilot on the OKU project, GAMMA AR has been deployed across multiple projects and departments within Dura Vermeer, supporting the company’s ambition to bring BIM from the office into everyday construction site operations.

The Challenge

The teams at Dura Vermeer Bouw en Vastgoed Amsterdam worked on both the renovation of the OKU Office and the construction of the OKU House. As the OKU Office building is considered a historical monument, it cannot be demolished and its architectural features must be preserved.

This created a major challenge on site: minimizing changes to the historical building required ensuring new installations and structural elements had to match the BIM model as closely as possible and interface with the existing structure only at intended locations. At the same time, the historical nature of the building meant that surprises (from undocumented past changes to concealed elements) could arise at any moment. Relying solely on construction drawings would have demanded extra diligence from field teams and inevitably led to human errors, delays, and rework.

The Solution & Implementation

To tackle these challenges, Vincent van Oostveen, Manager digitale innovaties at Dura Vermeer Bouw en Vastgoed Amsterdam, sought an augmented reality solution that met clear requirements: “It needs to be simple and easy to use, especially for field teams.” Previous tools were too complex to deploy effectively on site (e.g. requiring model preparation before use, or bulky equipment such as AR glasses), limiting adoption among construction teams.

With this in mind, Dura Vermeer Bouw en Vastgoed Amsterdam selected GAMMA AR and piloted it on the OKU project. By overlaying BIM models onto the construction site, field teams were able to visually compare the design with the actual construction during their site walks.

This allowed teams to verify installations on site, quickly detect gaps, and resolve issues before they resulted in costly rework. As Vincent explains: “We use the tablet to let the client walk through their building on site, but the main value is during construction. We go outside, compare the model with reality, and immediately spot issues. For example, if there should be four openings in the floor but only three are built, we catch it early and fix it before moving to the next stage.”

The Results

It saves time.

says Vincent van Oostveen when asked about the impact of GAMMA AR on site.

Beyond efficiency gains, Vincent quickly became a strong advocate for the solution. Colleagues who saw him using GAMMA AR on site began requesting it for their own projects:

“A co-worker called me last week asking, ‘Can you show me and my colleagues GAMMA AR? I want to use it on my new project, because I believe in it.’” As Vincent puts it, “I want to have that on all my projects.”

Since the OKU pilot, GAMMA AR has been adopted across Dura Vermeer, from commercial renovations to infrastructure.

For any contractor working on heritage buildings, where surprises are the norm and mistakes are expensive, the OKU project shows what is possible when AR is used on the job site. Following its success with the OKU Project, GAMMA AR has been rolled out across multiple projects and departments within Dura Vermeer.

Conclusion

On the OKU project, augmented reality turned potential risks into manageable inspections. Field teams caught missing openings before concrete was poured, verified MEP installations against the BIM model in minutes rather than hours, and resolved coordination clashes on the spot, all while ensuring the preservation of the building’s protected architectural features.