So far, the cities and districts in Hesse have not made much progress in the digitization of building permit procedures. This is the conclusion reached by the Chamber of Architects and Urban Planners of Hesse (AKH) after evaluating a survey among its members. According to the study, only around eight percent of architects have had experience with a digital building application in the past year. For AKH President Brigitte Holz, this is not surprising, because most municipalities have not yet offered the possibility of submitting building applications paperlessly. Laudable exceptions are the district of Offenbach, the city of Oberursel and the Werra-Meißner district. "Hesse is not ahead here," said Holz on Monday in Frankfurt.

Günter Murr

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Digitization is mentioned at the forefront when it comes to accelerating housing construction. The political goals are ambitious. The city of Frankfurt, for example, wanted to enable digital building applications last year. However, the construction files from the archive of the building inspectorate must first be digitized – a process that has not yet been completed. Only for the approval of advertising installations, the electronic application is to be introduced shortly.

Approval is only granted on paper

In Oberursel, on the other hand, the building supervisory authority has been working digitally since 2018. At that time, the written form required for building applications was deleted from the Hessian Building Code. Oberursel took advantage of the resulting opportunity for digitization right from the start. The only thing that is still printed on paper is the building permit itself. So far, it has not been possible to deliver administrative files electronically in a legally secure manner, explained Martin Kraushaar, Managing Director of the General Hospital. Smaller authorities can cope with analogue auxiliary solutions, but this is difficult for larger ones.

For architects, digitization is definitely a challenge, says Kraushaar. Although 79 percent of those surveyed expected a modernization push, 68 percent expected a decrease in time. At the same time, however, planners are frightened by the idea that every city has its own system of digital building applications and that they have to familiarize themselves with it again and again. "If each district develops its own solution, then we will not accelerate it," said Kraushaar. An interface that the municipal service provider ekom21 wants to provide centrally for the whole of Hesse is not progressing.

Human advice still needed

According to the requirements of the Online Access Act, it should already be possible to apply for building permits online anywhere in Germany. Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) announced last week that a system developed in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania could be used nationwide this year. However, according to Martin Kraushaar, Managing Director of the Chamber of Architects, the software from northern Germany has a decisive weakness: it was developed for simplified procedures and does not cover the entire spectrum of the approval process. It is not suitable for regions with extensive construction activity.

Kraushaar considers it problematic for authorities that work hybrid and later request plans submitted as a file as a printout. "This creates additional work for the architects and leads to a deceleration," he says. Brigitte Holz warned municipalities not to use digitization to reduce staff. Technology cannot replace human deliberations and decisions. However, the time saved by electronic applications could be used for more intensive coordination discussions between architects and authorities. The demand for this will increase, as more will be built in densely populated areas in the future.

In her view, digitization offers opportunities beyond paperless communication. For example, it is conceivable that basic requirements such as distance rules will be checked by artificial intelligence after receipt of the building application. To do this, a digital 3D model of the building would have to be attached to the documents.

In order to facilitate the circular economy with the recycling of building materials, which is currently often demanded, Holz would like to have a database in which all materials used are documented. This could be part of a digital construction file. "But this goes far beyond the classic building application and requires a different understanding of digitization."