While I am aware of the impermanence of web sites, here are a few that may spawn a search into related topics.
Our smart house home page:http://evlweb.eecs.uic.edu/spiff/casa/
Xerox PARC home page:
http://www.xerox.com/RXRC/Cambridge/home.html
The home page of Xerox PARC in Europe that has many research
topics of interest.
UNC walk through project:
Describes much of their research involving architectural
walk-throughs in virtual reality and other topics in their
computer science department.
Immersive Modeling in 3 space:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/
mine/immersive_modeling.html
Worlds in Miniature Research
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/
rws2v/plinth.htm
Graphics Visualization & Usability Design Virtual Environments
at Georgia Institute of Technology
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/virtual/DVE/DVE.html
Conceptual Design Space Project
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/virtual/CDS/
Meta Virtual Environments
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/people/Masters/Rob.Kooper/Meta.VR.html
Virtual Reality on a WIM: Interactive Worlds in Miniature
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/
rws2v/wim/wim-paper.html
Multi-user collaborative environments:
http://www.crg.cs.nott.ac.uk/
anb/comic.html
http://www.crg.cs.nott.ac.uk/Virtuosi/