BIM in the Building Permit Process

These days information technology affects many areas of our lives and many everyday operations are done digitally through all kind of electronic devices such as PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets and others. From our social connections to our shopping, health care plans, and the management of our personal bank accounts, almost everything is done online. For the last two decades, we have been observing a constant movement from the physical world to the digital one. In more recent years further changes have been seen, this time moving in the opposite direction from the digital world and the self-organizing power of networks to the physical world.

The same is true in the field of architecture, design and planning. Digital tools offer a wealth of new possibilities. At first only traditional manual drafting was replaced by computerized drafting programs but since then we have come a long way, to the point that now many theories have been put forward about parameters that can be input to systems algorithms to create architectural shapes or to obtain a structure that is “better” due to its performance. One of the advanced work methods gaining popularity today is BIM (Building Information Modeling), which uses full-model, three-dimensional computer modeling based on detailed information and knowledge about the various components of the planned building. The main difference is that this method allows most of the detailed work to be performed in the early stages of the design process, contrary to what is customary today in the construction industry. BIM can also help avoid design mistakes that later on may cause construction defects or delays, which have an estimated annual cost of over one hundred million NIS in Israel alone.

However, applying in Israel for building permits, like most countries in the world, is mostly if not entirely done by hand and not using computers or any digital tools. Building permits have been using meters of continuous forms that are printed then examined and tested using a scale bar and an angle gauge. This requires a lot of expert personnel and continues for long periods of time, usually several months and more. In most cases, the permitting process in Israel for a residential building takes two years, a particularly long time in comparison to other Western countries examined in this work. Indeed, Israeli law defines a time frame for the entire process but there is no way to enforce these laws and there are not enough professionals with the planning and other authorities to be able to meet the timetable.

In recent years, following the amendments and reforms to the Israeli Planning and Construction Law, large parts of the process are done through a file transfer system, a “Rishui Zhamin” which means online permitting. However, even though the files are transferred digitally from the planners to the examiner to review, the inspections are still done manually using computer tools like the previous method (digital scale bar and angle gauge) but not automatically.

This work examines what part of the building permit application process can be done through a future system that can comply with the Israeli Planning and Construction Law in a short, automatic permitting procedure. Additionally, the study enables us to assess which parts of the law this kind of system cannot handle properly.

For the purposes of this study, all the required regulations examined have been divided by type into three main categories which we call “Trunks”. Trunk A represents standalone regulations which can be examined independently without reference to the environment in which the object is being placed. Trunk B represents regulations that have referenced the object being examined in association with another subject but in the same area. For example, if we want to know the width required for a particular door then we first have to know where the door leads to and from. Trunk C regulations reference the object being examined in association with another subject, but this time in a different context, for example material properties relating to fire safety. In this case not only do we have to know the size and shape of the door but we also need to know how long it can resist fire. There are two additional categories, Trunks D and E; the first one covers regulations requiring assessment by specific senior-level civil administrators, so computer systems cannot cope, and the second involves regulations that define any term or refer to other regulations. The latter type of regulation is irrelevant to our catalog because in completed systems this is not an examination but only a reference.

The technology will offer an adaptive mechanism to the catalog which we will call Branches according the way it deals with the various tests. Branch A describes technology that we can start using now, with existing software for designing and testing software. Branch B is for technology that could be tested using existing software after making some adjustments; minor changes are needed as well as rewriting the new “Rules” in planning design software to examine the regulations. After writing the rules, it will be possible to examine the suitable regulations every time and the technology moves to Branch A. Branch C is technology that does not exist yet and if we want to examine such regulations we will have to write specialized software or plug-ins to examine these issues. As with Branch B, after we have finished Branch C the latter will also become Branch A.

In two main case studies we demonstrate a way to deal with two different levels of regulations examination (Trunks). The First case study discusses the “Kav Binyan”, meaning the imaginary line inside private property that the building must not cross. By using two different types of software we succeed in showing, through an automatic process, all the places which deviate from this line. In the second case study we translated the 1045 Israeli standard for thermal insulation (IS 1045) into the Revit software and managing to get a real time feedback while drawing a new wall for the structure and checking to see if the new wall is compliant with the standard requirements or not.

After examining 30 random pages from the Israeli Planning and Construction Law, we can say there are at least approximately 3200 regulations and that if we updated the working method as described in this paper, then we could save approximately 86% of the work related to building permits in the permitting departments. This would hopefully shorten the time required to obtain a permit, thus saving paperwork and allowing planners to have more time to improve quality. It would perhaps even help to lower housing prices and the cost of living.