Construction & Urban Planning
Digital Building Permit — from the paper file to automatically verifiable data. The openBIM domain for digitalising construction permitting.
This domain focuses on using openBIM to accelerate digitalisation at the level of local public administrations, following the "middle-out" approach — through staff training, presentations, deploying the necessary infrastructure and overcoming the main challenges. The central theme: Digital Building Permit.
What is a Digital Building Permit?
The full digitalisation of issuing urban planning certificates, approvals and building permits — not the electronic submission of scanned documents, but using BIM models and geospatial data to check projects directly against structured data.
Automated compliance checking
Urban-planning rules applied directly to the model — fewer errors, an objective result (automated compliance checking).
Transparency and predictability
Real-time trackable status and explicit checking criteria for applicants.
Interoperability through open standards
Lossless data exchange between designers, reviewers and administration.
Reduced timelines and costs
Digital workflows instead of physical files, and repeatable checks.
From model to digital permit
BIM model
The construction's information model.
Automated checking
Machine-readable rules and requirements, checked against the model (rule checking · BIM + GIS).
Digital permit
Traceable, transparent, fast.
Open standards: IFC4 · IDS · bSDD · CityGML. Context: EUnet4DBP · buildingSMART Regulatory Room · the national one-stop shop for construction · GO 7/2026.
The framework we work in
CATUC
The Territorial Planning, Urbanism and Construction Code: a national digital platform — the one-stop shop for construction — and the National Register of Buildings.
GO 7/2026
The obligation to accept electronically submitted documentation, electronic communication of approvals, tacit approval and penalties for restricting submission.
NRRP
European funding makes the digitalisation of administration a condition — digital approval workflows become an operational necessity, not just an ambition.
BIM Task Force Romania
The MDLPA structure coordinating BIM adoption in public projects, which BIMTECH collaborates with as a technical initiator.
The contribution of buildingSMART Romania
A bridge between the buildingSMART standards and their implementation in the Romanian legislative and administrative context.
IDS pilot projects for approvals
IDS (XML) specifications based on IFC4 and bSDD for the information requirements needed to obtain approvals — demonstrating automated checking on the model.
Institutional dialogue
Proposals and technical expertise for central authorities on the architecture of a national digital permitting system, aligned with European best practices.
Education and dissemination
Promoting the openBIM, IFC, IDS and bSDD concepts among professionals, public administration and academia.
International alignment
Connecting the Romanian ecosystem to the buildingSMART Regulatory Room community and the European EUnet4DBP network.
Medium-term plan 2026–2028
- Water/Sewerage approval IDS pilot completed and published (IFC4 + bSDD)
- Institutional positioning: dialogue with MDLPA / BIM Task Force RO
- Alignment with GO 7/2026 and the one-stop-shop architecture
- "Construction & Urban Planning" page + DBP educational content
- IDS library for more types of approvals and consents
- National modelling guide for permitting (LOIN per workflow)
- Partnerships with 2–3 pilot municipalities for testing
- Training programme — CHEK eLearning model, in Romanian
- Integration with the national platform / one-stop shop (CATUC)
- Automated checking demonstrated on real projects
- DBP maturity model applied to local authorities
- Active contribution to EUnet4DBP and the Regulatory Room
A proposal to be discussed within the association — the milestones are calibrated with the legislative calendar (CATUC) and the working groups' resources.
Digitalising permitting is a collective effort
Authorities · designers · software developers · academia — join the BIMTECH working group to define a Romanian Digital Building Permit.