Photos: Google Earth helping build a better future?

Taylor Woodrow Construction is using Google Earth to demonstrate what its future buildings will look like in the real world.

The construction company builds up the 3D computer aided design (CAD) models in Autodesk ADT2007 and then publishes them into Google Earth.

David Kerr, collaborative working manager at Taylor Woodrow, told silicon.com: "Using Google Earth delivers the value we need as a business, improving the communication of a construction project to a non-CAD user in non-CAD-specific web-based software."

Kerr added: "The main advantage that Google Earth has over other 3D imaging tools is that the 3D model can be viewed in a real-time location from a free-to-download web-based environment without having to install expensive viewing software."

Pictured is one of Taylor Woodrow's upcoming constructions - a hospital in Whiston, Merseyside.

Photo credit: Taylor Woodrow Construction