YIT focus on BIM in Finland and Russia

YIT’s residential construction arm in Finland has decided that in the future all new residential housing will be built using BIM (Building Information Modelling).

This means that before a residential building is physically completed, YIT will now create near-perfect digital copies of the buildings the company plans to construct.

The company says that this will greatly facilitate the design, construction and maintenance of the building and that this new way of working is a big step forward.

Senior vice president of the Housing Business Development at YIT Marko Oinas said, “We want to introduce BIMs throughout YIT. It is essential to spread this competence as evenly as possible across the entire organisation. Today, it is not enough that BIMs are used only by a few experts.”

BIM has become a prominent part of construction since the start of the year according to Oinas. He believes the availability of this software at sites is now similar in importance to the presence of excavators, site huts and cranes.

Oinas said, “BIM is brought to the construction site just like all the other equipment. On our construction sites, we have tried and tested rugged tablet computers that can run BIMs, as well as BIM kiosks where the models can be viewed on a computer. The site and also the subcontractors have benefited from the models”.

BIM can facilitate flow and utilisation of information at all stages of projects: at the beginning, when preparing schedules, calculating costs and amounts, and coordinating plans, as well as at a later stage, in sales and marketing or further development.

As information is processed, it gets more detailed; for example, you can get the amounts and locations of different elements and materials from a 3D model at a very precise level.

In addition to Finland, YIT has also developed and used BIMs in other markets, especially in Russia. According to YIT’s Development Director in Moscow, Juha Rissanen, the utilisation of BIMs has reached a new level.

The benefits of BIMs are seen even more so at large-scale construction projects. It is said that in Finland, there is an average of 40 to 60 apartments in one residential building, whereas in Russia, the figure is over 160, and buildings with 600 to 700 apartments are not uncommon.

In Russia, YIT’s goal is to increase the use of BIMs in customer service. Rissanen says that soon there will be virtual reality goggles in all sales offices throughout Russia, enabling buyers to take a virtual tour in their future apartment.