International property and construction consultancy Gleeds has teamed up with OpenSpace, the global leader in reality capture and AI-powered analytics, to create Visualise, a digital platform which implements innovative construction site capture technology across 75 live building sites in Peru.

Visualise, powered by OpenSpace’s proprietary technology, is being used by a consortium led by Gleeds and Mace as they undertake a $900m (£778m) education building programme funded by the Peruvian government. The Proyecto Especial de Inversión Pública – Escuelas Bicentenario (PEIP-EB) is a first of its kind special entity set up by Peru’s Ministry of Education (MINEDU) to deliver state of the art educational infrastructure to mark Peru’s 200th independence anniversary. The programme involves the delivery of 59 schools in the Metropolitan Lima area and 16 Emblematic Schools elsewhere in the country.

By introducing Visualise, Gleeds has been able to efficiently and fully document each of the sites using off-the-shelf 360o cameras. Upon upload to the cloud, the programme stitches together the resulting images and pins to approved floorplans, creating a trusted visual record of the site which is then available to view by the project team in around 15 minutes. This means the globally distributed project teams – whether in the UK or Peru – can access near real-time construction updates at any time from any device.

Dean Purvis, global head of infrastructure at Gleeds said, “Knowledge transfer is at the heart of our approach to the entire PEIP programme and in working with OpenSpace to deploy Visualise, Gleeds is demonstrating its continued commitment to sharing learning and increasing transparency between us and our project partners, clients, and even the local communities. We’re able to see the builds as they happen, allowing more eyes on the job and providing vital data which enables more accurate monitoring of both cost and progress.”

Commenting on the partnership, OpenSpace’s EMEA Sales Director Rob Matheson added, “The Bicentennial Schools programme represents a significant investment in the future of Peru, and we are delighted to play a part in its delivery. In choosing to implement our reality capture and analytics technology, Gleeds is revolutionising the way it creates and manages the built environment, and we’re proud that Visualise is enabling them to save time and money by providing a complete picture of this ground-breaking programme.”

Ben Huskisson, chief digital officer at Gleeds said: “We are hugely excited about the benefits that our forthcoming new digital products like Visualise can and will bring to our clients.”