BIM-based Building Permit Rolling out in Finland

On March 8th, I attended a seminar about RAVA3Pro, a national project to develop a BIM-based building permit in Finland. It was fascinating to learn about all the pieces needed to put together a practical solution for creating, submitting, and checking BIM models for permits.

Most building permit digitalization efforts have relied on 2D drawings in PDF or DWG formats and human compliance checking. Using IFC files instead adds complexity to the process but also creates unforeseen opportunities for the whole construction industry.
Making a BIM permit a reality involves process design, software solutions, guidelines, and a lot of work turning the building code into BIM rules that software like Solibri can automatically check.

Anna-Riitta Kallinen, the project manager, had organized a tightly scheduled program that featured many of the project participants, including Senate Properties, Cloudpermit and Future Insight, Trimble, and representatives of the municipalities involved.

23 municipalities involved

The development of the BIM building permit started in 2018. I then wrote about a pilot project during which three Finnish cities tested how BIM models can serve the authorities.

RAVA3Pro started in the autumn of 2021 and involved 23 of Finland’s 309 municipalities. The Ministry of Finance funded the project, and the Ministry of the Environment and the Association of Finnish Municipalities supported it.

The project fits into the big picture of digitalizing Finland’s public and private built environment data. The hope is to improve productivity, speed up processes, manage CO2 emissions, and support the life cycle processes with interoperable data.

Introductions of the project

Before the seminar, I shot two videos highlighting the work involved.
In the first video, Anna-Riitta Kallinen, the RAVA3Pro project manager, introduces the project.