3rd Annual Conference for Construction

The construction industry has experienced a year of decisions and new rules, and that's just the start. On 24 November, the third Annual Conference for Construction Law and Construction Standards focussed on the latest innovations relating to climate change, digitalisation and COVID-19, and how the complexity of these issues is having lasting impacts on the building trade.

This was the third Annual Conference for Construction Law and Construction Standards initiated by Austrian Standards and the Construction Agency of the Austrian Economic Chamber. But this time it was slightly different from the two previous years. The current coronavirus pandemic meant that participants weren't able to meet in person. Instead the ten speakers and 150 delegates from the construction community "met" virtually for a four-hour digital conference.

The conference focused on "making deregulation and innovations possible". External influences are progressively increasing complexity and the pressure for change in the construction sector. The challenge is to adapt building regulations so that they are comprehensible, fit for the future, sustainable and that they cut costs and can be accessed digitally.

For more insight: the Committee for Building Regulations is working on joint solutions

In order to understand this complexity and find joint solutions, back at the start of 2016, Austrian Standards worked with the Construction Agency of the Austrian Economic Chamber to found the Austrian Construction Dialogue Board (Dialogforum Bau Österreich). One specific result of this is the Committee for Building Regulations, which is dedicated to looking into problem areas and solutions.

At the opening of the conference, the Chairman of the committee, Dr. Rainer Pawlick, provided insight into the work of the committee and the problems areas it has addressed. These include the need for action on legal certainty in the construction sector, the ÖNORM standards and the general value and binding character of standards. According to Pawlick, these are generally lengthy processes, which won't be settled in a couple of years.

Reality check 1: Building regulations are being simplified

Andreas Kovar, moderator of the conference and managing director of Kovar & Partners GmbH, opened the first item on the agenda with an overview of the five areas of action and the results obtained so far by the Austrian Construction Dialogue Board, which stemmed initially from a problem analysis. The main task is to compare the standards of Austrian Standards with those of the OIB and to bring them in line with one another. Agreement also needs to be sought on reconciling political and economic building objectives, for example, on renovating buildings.

Lots of standards, little transparency

The Construction Agency of the Austrian Economic Chamber has produced a summary position paper, which was presented by Robert Rosenberger. This was based on the finding that there are around 3000 applicable standards in the construction sector across Europe but that only 700 of them are purely national construction standards. Initially, problems were collated and then approaches to solutions sought. This included defining standards beforehand and giving technical clauses a better legal footing. Finally, all the findings are to be stored in a database where they can be accessed by construction companies, planners and experts.

Initial successes: reduction, simplification, comprehension

To conclude the first reality check, Stefan Wagmeister, Deputy Director Standards Development at Austrian Standards, went into the goals in more depth. This included cutting the costs of construction, reducing the risk of liability, improving planning certainty, and promoting innovations and the dialogue between relevant stakeholders. To date there have been 73 proposals for improving construction standards, all of which have already been processed. For example, in terms of ÖNORM B 2204 "Ausführung von Baunormen – Werkvertragsnorm" ("Execution of components – Contract to provide services"), six standards have been merged into one to create greater transparency. Improvements have also already been made in terms of the comprehension of standards – for example, ÖNORM B 1300 in terms of the property safety checks for residential buildings and coordination of fire prevention. The results are more than satisfactory, but despite this we need to maintain momentum, stressed Wagmeister.

Reality check 2: Construction regulations are going digital

The construction community agrees that the industry needs to be more digitalised – even if just because of the coronavirus crisis. The speakers in the second part of the conference indicated how this is to work.

BIM, BAM and the Brise project

Bernhard Jarolim (City of Vienna, Construction and Technology Department) explained in his lecture how significantly the construction industry needs to and will change with regard to digitalisation. He and his team have created BRISE, a digitalisation project, which should make it easier for both the City of Vienna and citizens to submit and process construction plans. At its core is the digital building application model (BAM). The aims are to shorten the length of the process, optimise the quality and quantity of processing work, improve transparency and make meaningful use of the data available. Another highlight is the integrated 3D models of buildings. The project combines the high-tech methods of BIM (building information modelling), artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR). Jarolim anticipates that the project will conclude in the autumn of 2022.

The opportunities and challenges of digital developments

The more guidelines there are, the more complex the relations between them. This was the starting point for the lecture given by Markus Neumayer, Managing Director of Neumayer Projektmanagement GmbH. In the past, it was much quicker and easier to work through planning processes while today they are much more difficult. Neumayer believes that more stringent requirements, a greater variety of materials and more resources make building law and planning a labyrinth. He thinks that there are opportunities to be found in a completely digital system of building permits. He also wants to see applications processed more quickly and more efficiently. Ideally, he would like to see a building law wiki, which states exactly what needs to be taken into account in each circumstance.

But this still comes with a risk as not all institutes a) have the knowledge required, b) have the financial resources to expend on this level of technology, and c) there is a fear that creativity is lost with standardised systems. These are the very reasons given by Jarolim Neumayer in the subsequent round table to oppose digitalisation. A shift to a purely digital form could not (yet) work given the risks stated. This modern technology is also not able to take the place of personal discussions.

Reality check 3: Building regulations are going green

"We are now coming to a point where we are discovering the kind of future we need to prepare ourselves for," were the words chosen by Andreas Kovar as he introduced the third pain point of the conference – climate change.

What lies ahead?

As she stressed at the outset, Annemarie Lexer from the Department for Climate Research at the Central Institution for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) felt like an "outsider" to this event because she knows absolutely nothing about construction. Despite this, her involvement was very valuable, because the results of her research are highly relevant to the construction sector. Using climate models, she has shown that temperatures have been increasing continually, especially since the nineties. Climate change has also resulted in more extremes of weather, like short-lived but very high rainfall figures or long periods of drought. The resultant catastrophes were not, however, inexorably linked to climate change itself, but more the wrong kind of land use. For example, she pointed the finger of responsibility for flooding and landslips at ground sealing and incorrect planning of land use. She believes that if we continue as we have to date, in a worst-case scenario from 2071 onwards Vienna will experience 93 days of summer, twice as many as the reference period (1971-2000). What can the construction sector do about it? Lexer believes that solutions include reversing sealed ground surfaces, reforestation and an experimental asphalt, which allows more water to pass through.

From a green building product to a green structure

Dr. Rainer Mikulits, Managing Director of the Austrian Institute of Construction Engineering (OIB), spoke in his lecture about changes to construction law with regard to climate change. This is incredibly important when you consider that the construction sector is responsible for 40 percent of energy consumption within the EU and 36 percent of carbon emissions. Mikulits then went on to talk about the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan. The former signifies a wave of renovation as well as an action plan for a sustainable circular economy with a focus on resource-intensive building materials. The latter relates to the construction industry and buildings. It will be important in the future for a certain percentage of demolition waste to be recycled – and materials will have to be carefully separated for this to be possible. It is essential that new building products are also recyclable. Ultimately, we need to pay attention to the extent to which what may appear to be sustainable materials have been manufactured with minimal use of resources. Sometimes it's better to use less energy-efficient shells but to complete the build with sustainable resources.

Changes in building practices

There is greater awareness of sustainable construction methods amongst users, clients and in specialist fields. But how do we put this into practice? Paul Track (Authorised Signatory, Head of the Building Physics Department, RWT plus ZT GmbH) talked of spray systems and cool streets plus, which are streets planted up with trees and constructed from light-coloured materials, within the public realm in Vienna. Both projects aim to improve the urban climate as well as guaranteeing shaded and cool areas. Courtyards full of plants, for example, produce a comfortable outdoor climate. Planting up façades in cities and industrial areas counteracts heat islands as well as thermal loads and pollution. It is important that we check the sustainability of the entire life cycle – from planning to removal. In terms of buildings themselves, we need integral collaboration between architecture, the planning of supporting structures, building physics, fire prevention, building services and the construction industry. The prime example he chose to quote was Hoho Next in Vienna. Green building is no longer a vision: it has arrived.

COVID-19 leaflet

Dr. Wolfgang Wiesner, Head of the Building Construction Department at PORR AG, welcomed the participants to his daughter's nursery room, explaining that it had taken all of his powers of persuasion to convince her to allow him to use it for the duration of his presentation. In order to be prepared for unforeseen events like the COVID-19 pandemic, he has worked with a group of experts representing both employers and employees to produce what is the world's first code of practice for pandemics. This code of practice can be used to establish widely standard procedures for delays in the provision of services in terms of additional costs and longer build times. What is the legal position? What protective measures are needed and when? What are employees and employers entitled to? What are the consequences for businesses? The answers to all these questions can all be found in the code of practice. An update to the code of practice was published on 5 November.

You can download the entire document here https://www.bautechnik.pro.

Outlook

Moderator Andreas Kovar provided a summary at the end of the conference. It is clear that we are experiencing every conceivable form of social change. Such changes include the climate crisis, to which we have paid far too little attention to date, changes in settlement patterns, including that triggered by the rise in working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, and also the topic of renovation due to growing demands being imposed on buildings. Austria is good at administration but bad at change. We need to work at this.

Each of the speakers as well as the moderator Andreas Kovar referred to the importance of good cohesion, continual advances, active involvement and the desire to make things happen sustainably.

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3rd Annual Conference for Construction

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