Information infrastructure for digital fire protection – parametrics & visualization

Fire safety is a crucial element throughout the entire construction process and remains vital over a building's lifetime. Since 1994, the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building, and Planning (Boverket) began mandating fire protection documentation, a requirement that expanded in 2003 to include Systematic Fire Protection Work (SBA) through the Civil Protection Act (LSO). Beyond these regulations, fire safety in buildings is influenced by requirements and standards related to occupational safety and the handling of hazardous materials. Additionally, building owners and tenants in the buildings often have their own requirements based on insurance policies and specific needs of the business within the premises.

As building and property information becomes increasingly digitalized, the need to digitalize fire safety information also grows. This is essential for clear communication of fire safety requirements during the construction process. Gaps in this communication can lead to costly construction errors and have negative impact on the environment.

After a building is completed, it is also important for property owners to have access to detailed and traceable information for safe management. However, the lack of a uniform information structure can lead to misunderstandings and errors from design to management, potentially affecting both economy and safety.

Since 2018, efforts within Swedish and international standardization have been made to improve the handling of fire safety information in Building Information Modeling (BIM), with initiatives to support digital control plans and standardize information. Despite progress, challenges remain, such as a lack of standardization related to detailed visualization needs.

The current project proposes principles for systematizing, parameterizing, and visualizing fire safety information in a BIM environment, aiming to enhance compliance with requirements and facilitate the monitoring and control of fire safety. This initiative seeks to address these challenges with a broad base across different sectors of the construction industry, with the potential to reduce construction errors while simultaneously leveling the playing field in the market.

Why Visualization?

Visualization of fire protection information involves presenting how fire safety measures are incorporated into buildings in a clear and comprehensible manner, using images, drawings, and 3D models. This approach enables everyone involved in a construction project—not just architects and engineers but also clients and property owners—to easily grasp the relevant fire safety information. To be effective, it's crucial that the visualization is straightforward and clear, allowing individuals with diverse backgrounds and levels of expertise to understand the information. Good visualization fosters a shared understanding and ensures everyone can follow the project's progress from start to finish.

Why Parameterization?

Parameterization of fire safety information involves creating an organized and uniform language for describing and managing the information within a building project's BIM (Building Information Modeling) model. It is kind of like assigning a unique label to every relevant fire safety requirement of an object, such as a door's fire rating, which the object then carries through the entire building process, from design to management. In a parameterized world, a fire consultant determines the function and fire rating of a door, this specific information can easily be linked to the door that the architect includes in their drawings, and the information also remains within the building's management model. This streamlines the workflow by reducing unnecessary duplication and also decreases the risk of errors when information is transferred between different parties within the project.

Project goal

The goal of the project is to develop a common foundation for the visualization and parameterization of fire safety information in a BIM-environment. This foundation can then serve as a basis for standardization to foster a consensus on how such information should be handled. By standardizing the visualization and parameterization, the opportunities for various stakeholders to access and utilize the same information significantly increase. Therefore, the project is expected to contribute to improving both the construction process and the management of buildings.