The Future of Digital Building Permits: BIM-Powered Tools and Methods

ACCORD Final Seminar  

On the 19th of June 2025, the EU-funded ACCORD project presented its results at a Final Seminar at the EMBUILD (Belgium Construction Association) premises in Brussels. The hybrid event was supported by ECCREDI (European Council for Construction Research, Development and Innovation) and gathered academia, municipalities, software developers, building permit applicants, architects, engineers and policy makers. 

Key takeaway points 

• ACCORD delivered a BIM-based permitting framework, validated in 9 BIM-based building projects across Europe. 

• The event showcased a clear roadmap for practical implementation, emphasising standardisation, stakeholder buy-in, and scalability. 

• It positioned BIM-enabled compliance tools as a catalyst for faster, transparent, digitalised permit processes, paving the way for improved productivity and quality of design and construction in Europe. 

The event was opened by Rita Lavikka, Research Team leader at VTT and project coordinator in ACCORD. Her presentation provided an overview of the ACCORD vision for an efficient and transparent digital building permit process, pointing out semantic and interoperability as key enablers in the process. She highlighted ACCORD results, such as the ACCORD semantic framework, including its cloud architecture and solutions, such as code-compliance checking microservices, and regulation digitisation methodology (manual and AI-enabled), rule formalisation tool, Architecture, Engineering and Construction Compliance Checking Ontology, Building Compliance Rule Language, and ACCORD e-learning material. 

The following three sessions showcased ACCORD results, followed by panel discussions with the participation of ACCORD advisory board members, ACCORD sister projects CHEK and DigiChecks representatives and special guests. 

In the first session, Professor Thomas Beach at Cardiff University presented the ACCORD methodology on the digitalisation of regulation (machine-readable regulations). The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), ACCORD NLP models in the process, and the ontology was explained by Professor Edlira Vakaj from Birmingham City University. In the final presentation, the Associate Professor Gonçal Costa at La Salle Campus presented the ACCORD rule formalisation tool.

The first panel discussion had a fruitful conversation on topics such as the role of AI in the digitalisation of the building permit process and its trustworthiness, challenges in formalising machine-

readable rules and the ambiguities in laws, and the new frontiers for AI in digital building permits. The panel had participation of ACCORD partners and Professor Ruben Verstraeten at Ghent University, representing the DigiCheks project, Orjola Braholli, Researcher at Fraunhofer Italia, representing the CHEK project, Professor Robert Amor from the University of Auckland, ACCORD Advisory board member and ACCORD partner speakers in this session. The panel was moderated by Professor Thomas Beach. 

The second session explored the lessons learned in the ACCORD project demonstrations in Finland, Estonia, Germany, the UK and Spain using the technical solutions developed within the ACCORD project, supported by Cloudpermit, Solibri, and Future Insight. Rita Lavikka provided an overview of the ACCORD demonstration cases while Ilkka Mattila, Chief Innovation Officer at Cloudpermit, showed the software solution for BIM-based building permits and semi-automated code-compliance checking (API connection to Solibri) developed for the Finnish demonstration case, explaining the advantages and lessons learned. The session was closed by Jaan Saar, Chief Evangelist at Future Insight, who talked about how to start on the implementation of a BIM-based building permitting process, highlighting the ACCORD e-learning material.  

The second panel discussion highlighted the need to start small and prepare to fail and learn from it in the process of implementing BIM-based building permits, to develop a user-friendly interface providing essential information for the process with transparency and efficiency. The discussion panel was moderated by Anna-Riitta Kallinen, owner at ARK consulting, and had the participation of Siham El Yamani, representative of the CHEK project, Pia Nitz, Senior BIM specialist at Solibri and ACCORD partners, and ACCORD partners speakers in the second session. 

In the third and final session, project partners presented the methodologies, solution developments and policy recommendations for the future of BIM-based building permits. Tarja Mäkeläinen, Senior Scientist at VTT, provided an overview of the BIM-based building permits “to-be” mapping as a reference process, the roadmap methodology applied to the demonstration countries, the steps to the transformation and vision stages. Katja Breitenfelder, Project and business developer, Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP, presented the ACCORD framework and the user requirements elicitation, and the ACCORD cloud architecture. Last, Larissa De Rosso, EU funding and projects manager at the Architects´ Council of Europe, conclude the presentations with 11 Policy Recommendations on BIM-based Building Permits. 

In the final panel discussion, participants debated the future of BIM-based building permits, their connection to the building passport and the digital building twins, the importance of collaboration among all stakeholders on the implementation process and the legal challenges to be overcome. The panel had the participation of Aarno Alanko, head of the Permit unit at the City of Helsinki and ACCORD advisory board member, Eduard Loscos, president of the Building Digital Twins Association (BDTA) and DigiChecks representative and Sergio Vazques Jimenez, president of the Consortium of European Building Control (CEBC), and ACCORD speakers in the last session. The panel was moderated by Larissa De Rosso. 

About ACCORD 

Project ACCORD (Automated Compliance Checks for Construction, Renovation or Demolition Works) is a three-year EU funding project (September 2022–2025) coordinated by VTT with the participation of 20 European partners. It aims to digitise and automate the building permit and compliance process using BIM (Building Information Modelling), GIS, semantic web technologies, open standards, and microservices. ACCORD develops a comprehensive semantic framework that transforms regulations into machine-readable rules, integrates them into a centralised Ruleset Database, and deploys Building Compliance Checking Microservices accessible via standardised APIs. 

Key outcomes include: 

• An ACCORD rule formalisation tool to convert building regulations into standardised, machine-readable formats. 

• The ACCORD AEC3PO ontology (blog post) enables coherent communication of compliance rules across stakeholders.  

• The ACCORD Semantic Framework and its cloud architecture, including a toolbox of solutions, such as code-compliance checking microservices. 

• A Semantic Ruleset Database. 

• Demonstrations of automated checks in real-world BIM-based building projects across Finland, Estonia, Germany, Spain, and the UK.  

• Open-source software, technical standards, training materials, e-learning modules, and guidelines aimed at industry adoption and regulatory harmonisation. 

• ACCORD scientific publications and reports. 

By leveraging GeoBIM and rule-driven automation, ACCORD seeks to create a transparent, cost-effective, scalable, and human-centred digital permit ecosystem, aligning with the EU Green Deal and European Bauhaus initiatives. 

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