Electronic building control
Construction in Finland requires a permit, and the municipality's building control authority is responsible for processing permits. The building permit process proceeds in cooperation between the builder and the local building control authorities. The builder applies for a permit for his project and is responsible for preparing the plans and reports necessary for processing the permit. The municipality's building control authority, on the other hand, guides the permit applicant, processes permit applications and supervises construction from the point of view of public interest.
Construction has accelerated in recent years, especially in growth centers. In order to make operations more efficient, many municipalities have electrified their building permit process. This has also been done in Espoo, where the transition to electronic permit processing began in 2009 and the building permit process became completely electronic in 2017.
The customers of the city's building control have also adopted the electronic service. During the last couple of years, not a single traditional paper building permit application has been submitted in Espoo.
In Espoo, an efficient building control process is made possible by the building control system supplied by Trimble , whose tools support the entire building control process, from the application stage to the completion of the building. The system not only serves the internal processes of the building control organization, but the system also includes a transaction service aimed at builders, through which the application for a building permit can be handled completely electronically. Communication between the parties of the construction project can also be handled in the system from the beginning to the end of the project.
Using Trimble's building control system, the city of Espoo processes just under 2,000 permits each year, of which about half are building permits. One of the permits applied for through the system is the construction permit for Trimble's new office building, which was granted on March 21, 2019.
Trimble's new office is going up in Hatsinanpuisto in Leppävaara
Trimble's new office will be completed in 2021 in Hatsinanpuisto in Leppävaara, Espoo. The building will be owned by the insurance company Varma , and the developer and builder of the project is NCC .
We Trimble residents are closely involved in the planning of the building project, as the goal of the project is to build a place where Trimble residents can develop the world's best software. The house will also be a model example of how Trimble's products and services are used to build the world's best urban infrastructure.
The first of the Trimble products used in the project is related to dealing with the authorities and the building control process of the city of Espoo, which is part of the office building project. Both are handled digitally from start to finish, and the system developed by Trimble makes everyday life easier for both the license applicant and the license grantor.
In order to find out what this means in practice, we interviewed the project manager Pirkka Pikkarai from NCC and the architects of Arkkitehtoimisto Cederqvist & Jäntti Oy, Leena Brooke and Anna Ryhä, who were responsible for the permit process . Document management designer Jani Salminen and technical secretary Maarit Lakso agreed to be interviewed from the city of Espoo.
From the point of view of a person embarking on a construction project, the system is good, as it gathers a large part of the information related to the official dealings related to the building permit in one place. If new parties join the project along the way, it is possible to go through matters related to the building permit together. The system also increases the transparency of operations. A trace of all transactions is left in the system, and you can also return to the conversations afterwards if necessary.
— Pirkka Pikkarainen, Project Manager, NCC
The builder transacts in the city of Espoo's electronic transaction service in real time
The building project's permit process officially started on October 1, 2018, when the architect Leena Brooke, who is the main designer of the project, created a permit application for a new office building in the electronic transaction service of the city of Espoo.
Of course, in such a large project, the matter had been presented to the city of Espoo in various meetings even before the permit process was started. The project was also preceded by a formula change process. Since the current plan for the Hatsinanpuisto area did not allow for the desired height of office building, an exception permit was applied for before starting the building permit process for the project — that too through Espoo's electronic transaction service. With the help of the Trimble map service used by Espoo, the architects have, in turn, familiarized themselves with the planning regulations of the area.
As the permit process progressed, Leena Brooke and Anna Ryhänen uploaded updated permit drawings to the transaction service, as the building inspectorate made supplemental requests. In addition, other necessary permit attachments were uploaded to the service, such as reports on the qualifications of designers, site management, noise, and the handling of construction and demolition waste. During construction, the necessary structural and special plans are also delivered through the transaction service.
The building control authorities of the city of Espoo, on the other hand, record information about submitted inspections and the control of permit conditions in the system. For example, information about the marking of the building's location in June can be conveniently found in the transaction service.
The builder benefits from electronic transactions
"From the point of view of those starting a construction project, the system is good, because it gathers a large part of the information related to the official dealings related to the building permit in one place. If new parties join the project along the way, it is possible to go through the issues related to the building permit together," says project manager Pirkka Pikkarainen from NCC. "The system also increases the transparency of operations. A trace of all transactions is left in the system, and you can go back to the conversations afterwards if necessary," adds Pikkarainen.
Things haven't always been this way. Architects remember how things were handled before the electronic transaction service. "An appointment was made for the building control customer service and when the agreed day finally arrived, the bundles of permit drawings were grabbed under my arm and taken to be presented to the permit authority. Before this, I had already traveled with the drawing bundles to different agencies to get plans approved. Building permit documents and their information were dug out of folders when they were needed," says Leena Brooke.
The idea behind the electronic system is that all parties can work together in a common workspace in real time. This means that Brooke and Ryhäsen no longer have to jump into the car either, but the pictures can be transferred to the building control for approval with the push of a button.
Of course, while digitalization has reduced the need to visit the building control agency on site, the requirements of the authorities have increased. If previously you had to obtain five reports for a building permit, now fifteen are required. From the builder's point of view, the increased level of requirements from the authorities, but also the efficiency and transparency of operations offered by digital technology, create an excellent starting point for the industry to meet various requirements and quality standards.
Over the years, the processing of permits has become almost completely electronic, and today the entire permit process can be handled digitally from start to finish, from the first contact to the writing of the invoice. Even stamped drawings are no longer sent to customers by mail, but are uploaded to the transaction service, where they are immediately available to the customer. The granted permits are also announced exclusively online.
— Maarit Lakso, Technical Secretary
In Espoo's building control, permits are processed electronically
There are currently 17 handlers, 5 assistants and 13 building inspectors working in the construction supervision of the city of Espoo. All in all, the building control organization has approx. 50 people. In addition to building permits, the agency also handles landscape work, measures, demolition and extension permits.
The tasks of the building control organization include, for example, preliminary processing of permit issues together with the customer, checking the correctness of the information related to the granting of the permit, possibly consulting neighbors and requesting the necessary statements from other authorities, and of course processing and granting the permit either as a decision by the office holder or preparing a decision proposal for the building board to decide. When the number of jobs is large and the number of permits applied for rises to nearly two thousand every year, it is clear that operations must be as efficient as possible.
Archive designer Jani Salminen and permit secretary Maarit Lakso, who work in building control, have been able to witness the change in operating methods in Espoo from the site.
"Over the years, the processing of permits has become almost completely electronic, and today the entire permit process can be handled digitally from start to finish, from the first contact to the writing of the invoice. Even stamped drawings are no longer sent to customers by mail, but are uploaded to the transaction service, where they are immediately available to the customer. The granted permits are also announced exclusively online", say Salminen and Lakso.
Nowadays, in Espoo, the default is that permits are issued online, and efforts have been made to optimize the organization's traditional work processes in such a way that they support electronic transactions and not the other way around.
Espoo is one of the fastest growing cities in Finland. Despite this, there has been no need to increase the number of employees at the agency, even though the number of new permit applications and especially the scope and complexity of the projects has continuously increased over the years. Costs have been kept under control.
— Jani Salminen, Document Management Designer
The benefits of electrifying the building control process can be seen concretely in Espoo.
According to Salminen and Lakso, the work has also borne fruit. "Espoo is one of the fastest growing cities in Finland, but despite this there has been no need to increase the number of employees at the agency, even though the number of new permit applications and especially the scope and complexity of the projects has continuously increased over the years. The costs have therefore been kept under control." Also, recording permits and informing about decisions is faster and more affordable, because working time is no longer spent on writing information from forms to the register, nor on printing and mailing decision extracts.
"Without the implementation of electronic transactions, more space would also have to be acquired for the archives of the building control, because already in 2014 the 120m2 archive space of the building control was almost full", Salminen and Lakso reflect.
Completely electronic transactions will hardly ever be reached
Although all building permits are applied for electronically in Espoo, a very small part of other permits belonging to the agency's field are still applied for on paper. In 2018, 4-5% of all permit applications received by the Building Control Agency were received on paper. These permits were mainly applications for extensions and applications for felling trees. We will hardly ever get to fully electronic transactions, as the law obliges municipalities to accept paper applications in the future. Of course, permits received on paper are also transferred to the electronic system, so even a paper permit application in Espoo does not escape efficient electronic processing.
The new Trimble house in a nutshell
A place where people from Trimble can develop the world's best software and a model example of how Trimble's products and services are used to build the world's best urban infrastructure.
Work space: 18,500 sq m, of which 1,000 sq m of café, restaurant and co-working spaces Parking rights: 379, Bicycle parking: 315, of which 225 are covered.
