The project tested how the building control process of a municipality, and the interaction it involves, can be sped up by utilising 3D material. 

What kind of problem did this project try to solve?

The objective was to utilise 3D BIM material in a meaningful way in building control processes through a relatively small project. Another aim was to include material created by a designer in an assessment of the city landscape conducted through interaction between the designer, the client and the permit inspector. The intention is to use the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data model in a purely machine-readable format so that actual building control inspection measures of a basic nature can be performed on it. At the same time, the idea is to familiarise the various parties involved in the process with the new operating model and to teach them how to use it, and subsequently to collect experiences in reports for further development and for the purpose of increasing efficiency.

Who benefits?

Designers, clients and permit inspectors. The aim was to speed up building control operations and increase their efficiency by utilising 3D material generated in the control process in various ways, and by giving the different parties involved a potentially novel way of accessing the material.

What outcomes did the experiment produce?

Sova3D Oy provided the software expertise for the project. Initially, a test server was created on Sova3D Oy’s own server, where the deployment of the application was tested. The open data component of Lupapiste.fi was used as the environment against which the testing was performed. After a successful test, the Sova3D extension was added to the Lupapiste.fi service, which is in production use in the building control department of Vantaa. The extension was used to perform the piloting of the city landscape.

Gravicon Oy acted as the data model coordinator in the project, using the Solibri Model Checker software to perform checks on an IFC model that was saved as an attachment to a permit. The model was found to be of good quality, and it fulfilled the objectives of the project.

The building control department of Vantaa aimed to test the use of the models as part of its building permit process in the Lupapiste.fi production environment. A concrete aim was to have a project’s scope information read directly from the model and, among other things, to compare it with the information stated by the designer in an application for a building permit. In current local plans and with current calculation methods, scope information is often subject to different interpretations by the designer and the person processing the permit. The use of data models could bring about a transformation in this process, and interpretations would no longer be needed, as scope information would always be interpreted the same way and consistently in all projects. With the currently available means, all the scope information needed for issuing a permit can be interpreted directly from the model, as long as the latter complies with the guidelines of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council.

BIMs in building control inspections and the related interactive process
Duration: 1 January 2017–31 March 2017
Implemented by: City of Vantaa, Gravicon, Sova3D

Contact information

Petri Kokko, CEO, Sova3D Oy
Tel: +358 50 551 1252
Email: petri.kokko(at)sova3d.fi