How it works

VU.CITY

Whether your project is for a house or an entire city, make the right decisions with VU.CITY. Explore the functions and benefits of our 3D digital planning and design tool to see what you can achieve, where and when – better and faster. 

All our cities are highly accurate up to 15cm and fully interactive. Quickly understand the potential of a site with major consented schemes visualized.

impressive accuracy

Test feasibility and make better informed decisions early on with massing functionality. Import refined designs from external 3D modelling software (Revit, Rhino, SketchUp & 3ds Max) and securely share and collaborate on designs.

Test designs in context

VU.CITY enables project teams, stakeholders and planning decision-makers to communicate on schemes with ease! The project collaboration space enables everyone to better understand the outputs of 3D, streamline feedback and expedite decision making.

Great Collaboration for Streamlined Decisions

See the visual impact of your scheme in a matter of minutes

Zone of Theoretical Visibility (ZTV) is an advanced scoping tool in VU.CITY that shows the effects of a proposed development by letting you instantly see where it is visible at ground level.

Annotate and collaborate on Projects with VU.CITY 'Tags'

Tags are a VU.CITY feature that enable richer information collation, sharing and collaboration to create a shared vision with project teams, clients and local authorities.

Protected views visualized in VU.CITY London

There are some important views across London, from parks and other public spaces that take in important buildings, to urban landscapes that help culturally define the city. These important views are visualized in VU.CITY London so you design schemes in these areas with clarity on height restrictions.

Understand the impact of light and weather at an early stage - for any time, any day of the year - in seconds. See how a building might encroach on daylight, where to position windows and balconies, and more. Create corresponding imagery that enhances bids and applications.

Micro-climate Analysis

Whether it be on bids, design meetings, pre-app, planning committee and more, you can use the ‘Presenter Tool’ to take stakeholders on a journey of design to support understanding and have meaningful conversations to improve project outcomes.

Impressively present proposals live

Use planning data layers that are relevant to each city from public and private sector sources. See if your site is near any listed buildings or in a conservation area right away and examine other key factors, such as pollution and public accessibility, to understand the feasibility and impact of your scheme.

Data-led decisions

Measure and compare heights and distances with any existing, conceptual or approved developments with AOD height tools and point measurements in a 15cm accurate city model.

Measure with accuracy

Our latest 360° camera functionality enables you to present key views, share projects and create interactive images so you can communicate effectively through an immersive experience.

Greater Engagement with 360° Views

Discover opportunities and limitations with camera tools to study views from bird’s-eye to pedestrian level. Place cameras to look out of your design concept to see the views and work out the most desirable units. Use cutting edge tools, such as Zone of Theoretical Visibility (ZTV), to instantly see where your scheme can be viewed from.

Explore key views

SUBMITTING A SCHEME FOR ANALYSIS

How can using VU.CITY benefit my application?

26 UK & International Cities

Over 3,000+ sq km accurate to 15cm  I  Tools to scope, create & collaborate on designs

In your words

“We’re bringing in architects and our clients and different consultants in one room and we’re viewing the drawing, the architecture and the massing through VU.CITY.”
Charlotte Orrell
Senior Planner at Iceni Projects
“Councils can see, planning officers can see very quickly when they see a development of VU.CITY that it makes sense to them. They really feel like we're not hiding anything from them. Historically, you'd give them five or six views and they'd go, "Oh, you cherry-picked the best ones." And now we can take them through that process and that's helped massively.”
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Laurie Handcock
Director - Iceni Projects
“We're bringing in architects and our clients and different consultants into one room and we're viewing the proposals, the massing of the buildings from day one, and we're building basically the drawings and the architecture and the massing through VU.CITY”
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Charlotte Orrell
Senior Planner - Iceni Projects
"VU.CITY allows us to quickly understand the feasibility of a site, in context and get rapid feedback from our project stakeholders. It helps us reduce time wasted waiting on feedback from key decision makers, by enabling real-time collaboration across a number of teams."
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Nick Hayden Hub
Nick Hayden - Senior Design Manager, Mount Anvil
"VU.CITY is not simply a 3D software offer, it's a four if not five dimensional space that incorporates live time and place capabilities. Going forward the synchronicity that VU.CITY provides to connect with other big data intelligence is an opportunity for urbanists to evidence with greater certainty, support for development or preservation initiatives."
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Paul Stallan
Design Director - Stallan-Brand
“At Farrells we use VU.CITY for many different things, from very early research on the site, to understanding how the options we have been designing fit within the context, also with future developments that are coming in the area."
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Giulia Robba
Architect - Farrells