The EU BIM Task Group General Assembly for 2020 was held on 15th of December 2020 on-line. Below is a summary of the discussions and presentations.  

“Digitalisation of the Construction Ecosystem”

Fulvia Raffaelli, Head of Unit “Clean Technologies and Products” (DG GROW)
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Fulvia Raffaelli starts her presentation saying that since the last General Assembly in 2019, there have been many policy developments in the area of Construction and digital construction particularly.

Indeed, as part of the European Green Deal many initiatives have highlighted the importance of the construction sector through notably the announcement of the Construction Products Regulation revision (in the Circular Economy Action Plan) and the Renovation Wave strategy.

The renovation wave aims at doubling the rate of renovations and decarbonising the European Building stock. It also aims at contributing to the green and digital transition in Europe from the side of buildings and construction. In that context, three areas of action mentioned in the Renovation Wave are of particular interest for the EU BIM Task Group members: the digital building logbooks, the digital building permits, and the spread of the use of BIM for public procurement and beyond.

Regarding the digital building logbooks, they will address the challenges of data availability in the construction sector and increase transparency, trust and informed decision-making. The Commission envisages logbooks as the single tool through which all building-related data, information and documents will be accessed in fair and European terms. Logbooks should be secure tools that allow owners to have control over their own data as well as digital and dynamic, able to keep and update a record of all events in the life of a building.

As mentioned in the Renovation Wave, Logbooks should make use and link to existing platforms and tools, including Energy Performance Certificates, the Smart Readiness Indicators, renovation passports and others.

In the years to come, the Commission will continue working on the further definition of the datasets and functionalities of logbooks, as well as on the interoperability between different tools and platforms. The goal is to digitalise the built environment, and grasp the benefits of data, not only for collaboration and convenience, but also for resource efficiency, safety and the creation of new business models and opportunities.

This also requires research and innovation, for this reason, Fulvia Raffaelli’s unit with other services and the Member states have been involved in the definition of the Horizon Europe Work Programme.

Another action announced in the renovation wave is the digitalization of the building permits. The discussions with construction stakeholders and authorities revealed that more research and innovation projects could contribute to an EU Framework.

Finally, through the Renovation Wave, the Commission expressed its commitment to accelerate adoption of BIM in public procurement. In the course of 2021 and 2022, the EU BIM Task Group will be called upon in order to develop and provide a Commission Recommendation.

In the meantime, in collaboration with the Chair and co-chair of the Group and through a service contract, a model to conduct cost-benefit analysis for the use of BIM in public procurement is under development. This model will be made available to all public procurers across Europe by May 2021.

Digitalization of construction depends as well on the industry. As part of the Digital Europe Programme there will be support for Digital Innovation Hubs and Testing and Experimentation Facilities, which subject to the commitment and orientations of the Member states can contribute to the digitalization of construction SMEs and the industry in general.

During 2021 and 2022, DG GROW will be working particularly on the development of a digital maturity scan for construction SMEs, an interactive guidebook and on site trainings to help SMEs network, become aware of the possibilities, receive support and digitalise.

As a conclusion, Fulvia Raffaelli underlines the fact that the diverse situation across different Member States is something to look into, and through the exchange of good practices can become our strength. As part of the European Construction Sector Observatory, a new Analytical report will be produced on the digital transformation of construction, looking at both the transformation of industry and public administration.

Election of the Chair, Deputy chairs and new Steering Committee

The possibility of having two Deputy Chairs proposed by the Steering Committee is unanimously adopted.

A drafting amendment of the governance document is proposed by Spain to replace the one presented and approved by all the members:

“… up to three of its members to respectively act one as the Chair and up to two as Deputy Chairs of the EU BIM TG. The term of office of the Chair and the Deputy Chairs is two years. The term is renewable once.”

The following Steering Committee’s proposal for the nomination of the chair and Deputy-chairs:

• Souheil Soubra / Chair of the EU BIM TG
  Director of Information Technologies at CSTB (Scientific and Technical Centre for Buildings)
• Milena Feustel / Deputy Chair of the EU BIM TG
  German Institute for Federal Real Estate
• Jaan Saar / Deputy Chair of the EU BIM TG
  Head of Digital Construction – Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

Is accepted by unanimity.

The Steering Committee’s proposal for the nomination of its members:

• CZ: Jaroslav Nechyba
• DE: Milena Feustel (Deputy Chair)
• EE: Jaan Saar (Deputy Chair)
• ES: Susana Espana (Jorge Torrico)
• FR: Sara Angotti
• IT: Pietro Baratono (Cinzia Gatto)
• LT: Dainius Cergelis
• NL: Benno Koehorst
• NO: Ramnath Falch Ambathy
• + Chair: Souheil Soubra

Is accepted by unanimity.

The Steering Committee’s proposal to appoint Liana Anagnostaki, TCG’s Head Directory of Public Relations, International and European Affairs (GR) as a new member of the Steering Committee is also accepted.

Tarmo Savoleinen’s application (FI) for the vacant position is also accepted during the session.

Regarding the United Kingdom’s situation in the European Union, all the members of the General Assembly support the proposal to continue the close cooperation under special partnership and to mandate the Steering Committee to finalise the special partnership agreement.

Progress on the Roadmap actions

Presentations are made to update the following topics (download presentations):

A1 – Cost Benefit Analysis
by Milena Feustel

See also detailed presentation “BIM in Public Tenders: Methodology for a Cost-Benefit Analysis” by RINA Consulting.
Milena Feustel thanks in advance the members who agreed to answer the questionnaire sent by the Italian consulting company Rina before the end of January.

Finland would like to propose one out of the planned 6 use cases.

C3 – Common Classification System
by Jaan Saar

Spain will get in touch with CCIC to exchange views on the development of a Spanish classification system for railway infrastructures.

E1 – Unified Digital Platform (H2020 project DigiPLACE)
by Claudio Mirarchi (Polimi)

Follow this link to become a member of DigiPLACE Community of Stakeholders.

Suggestions for 2021 actions and AOB

Germany suggests, in the framework of the renovation wave cooperation action with DG Grow, to extend BIM to already existing buildings.

Charlie (Luxembourg) also suggests extending it to demolition and deconstruction processes.

A specific Task Force will be launched about renovation and deconstruction. The SC will send proposal to the GA for the organisation. Charlie is already interested.

UK announces that the next Global BIM Summit will take place online on 17 March 2021 (https://www.globalbimsummit.org/) and that contributions could be requested from the EUBTG members.

 

List of pariticpants:

 

 

Utilizing Building Information Models (BIM) to automate the building permit process may be the “killer app” for BIM that many of us have been waiting for. Earlier experiments of BIM-based Model Checking (BMC) solutions in Norway, the Netherlands and Singapore have clearly identified that a digital process can be expected to be faster and cheaper than manual processing. The results indicate that development of an automatic compliance-checking platform will return ten times the investment required. 

Many building authorities around the world have started taking the first steps towards implementing BMC in the building permit process and at the BIM-based Building Permit Process Automation Seminar in Tallinn, Estonia on February 20th they shared some of the latest developments and best practices. Around 130 participants from 14 different countries took part in the seminar on-site and over 220 attended on-line from 25 different countries. The surprisingly high level of attendance shows that this is a hot topic around the globe and many public authorities want to take advantage of BIM to speed up the permitting process. Prototype solutions were presented from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Netherlands and UK. All presentation along with the video recording are available on the event website.

The event was kicked-off by Jaan Saar with a short introduction about the EU BIM Task Group followed by Richard Petrie and Nicholas Nisbet from buildingSMART International (bSI) highlighting the need for open & neutral data exchange. It was great to have the Chief Executive of bSI start the seminar because open standards, especially IFC, were a common theme throughout all presentations. This was a key takeway that IFC was the standard of choice for most public authorities. Tomi Henttinen from buildingSMART Finland also noted in his presentation that without good BIM standards it is not possible to reach full automation.

Jaan Saar and Rick Klooster presented the Estonian proof-of-concept (POC) web solution based on opens source components (BIM Server, BIM Surfer, Voxel Server). The POC solution was developed by the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in 2019 with the help from the European Structural Reform Support Programme. Although Estonia already has a fully digital building permit process it is still based on “digital paper” (DWG-s, PDF-s) and the design drawings submitted with the building permit application have to be reviewed manually. The POC demonstrated that using smart algorithms to checks BIM models can automate many (if not all) of the labor intensive manual checks. The POC also highlighted the benefits of algorithm-based checks which are less sensitive to BIM errors compared to strictly rule-based checks. Estonia plans to implement BIM-based model checking in the existing building permits system in 2021.

Pekka Virkamäki and Jekaterina Masjagutova from the City of Vantaa showed a rule-based workflow for permit checking using Solibri Model Checker. They started doing 3D inspections with Solibri already 2 years ago (2018) as part of a KIRA-digi prototyping project and results have proven a time saving of at least 20% compared to the traditional process. Vantaa also utilizes the 3D city model to visualize the planned building along with the surrounding environment.

Michael Theiler from Planen-Bauen 4.0 gave a detailed overview of how they plan to seamlessly integrate BIM into the official building application process using XPlanung and XBau systems in Germany. The research project was started in 2018 and lasts until 2020 but already a working software solution was demonstrated. The solution has lots of functionality and the first piloting is being done in Hamburg.

Rob Roef from TNO explained how algorithmic based checking of BIM can save a lot of time and add transparency, which translates into less end user stress. Rob also did a great job explaining how AI works and how it could be applied to automate the process using open-source BIM bots, the same technology used in the Estonian POC. Another example is the “MPG BIM Bot” which is an algorithm based tool for environmental impact checking in the Netherlands.  An MPG report often has a turnaround time of at least 1 day but using “MPG BIM Bots” it takes minutes to an hour to generate a report.

In order to apply BIM-based regulation checks you need to make the regulations machine readable tables. Usually that is not easy because regulations are messy and have lots of subclauses. Nicolas Nisbet from AEC3 demonstrated a solution that can automatically create logical statements from color-coded regulations text. The “AEC3 Require1” tool was built years ago based on experience from Singapore and has been tested on several different regulations with promising results. Although there is limited BIM integration the tool shows potential and hopefully will be developed into a commercial product in the coming years.

The seminar was wrapped up by Francesca Noardo from TU Delft who presented a new workflow for the building permits issuing using GeoBIM. This means the integration of geoinformation (GIS) and BIM which creates the possibility to carry out not only technical checks but also zoning, parking, accessibility and environmental issues. This approach was tested in Rotterdam which has a very detailed digital twin of the city. Francesca also introduced the “European Network for Digital Building Permits” which aims to develop common tools and methods to support the digitization and automation of the building permit issuing process.

The BIM-based Building Permit Process Automation Seminar was hosted by the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and organized in co-operation with the EU BIM Task Group. The seminar is also part of a series of pre-events leading up to the World Summit on the Digital Built Environment (WDBE) in Helsinki/Tallinn in September 2020. 

EU BIM Task Group Co-Chair Milena Feustel gave a great lecture about the EUBTG titled “The EU BIM Task Group roadmap for the digitalization οf the construction sector”and received huge interest at the HELLASCO Conference 2019 in Athens, Greece on 26th September 2019. Several requests for  collaboration were received plus positive feedback about our ambitious work. The Greek hospitality was outstanding too.