Gewobag and Airteam — Efficient aerial survey of the façade


Starting situation and challenge
With over 75,000 residential units, Gewobag is one of Berlin's largest municipal housing associations. A central task: the continuous renovation and modernization of existing buildings. This requires precise inventories — up to now a time-consuming and labor-intensive process: In the past, only manual measurement of a façade by external planners took up to 6—7 working days per object.
The building structure poses additional challenges: In many properties — such as the project on Danziger Straße in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg — several facades in the courtyard and a back wall must be covered. These areas are often difficult to access. In addition, finding appointments for joint inspections with various departments or external planners is a real challenge in a large company with many participants.
The solution: Airteam
Instead of time-consuming on-site inspections, Gewobag now uses drone footage from Airteam. The Airteam pilots fly off the object themselves — a full drone flight only takes around 6 minutes — and create true-to-scale 3D models based on the drone photos. This not only saves days of on-site work, but also relieves project managers, who no longer have to provide internal capacities.
The results
- 6-7 days vs 6 minutes: The entire recording process is drastically accelerated.
- Cost savings: The basic assessment by Airteam significantly reduces the required architect budget.
- Digital work in a 3D model: The 3D models created by Airteam enable digital reconciliations — on-site appointments are therefore not necessary
- Internal collaboration: Planners and specialist departments can work together on objects from anywhere.
- Tenant communication: Airteam drone pilots openly approach skeptical tenants — this actually creates genuine interest rather than rejection.
Vision of the future
In the long term, Gewobag wants to digitize its entire inventory — with a fully accessible 3D model of all buildings from outside and inside. The goal: More efficient planning, communication and administration. In the future, several hundred objects per year could be digitally recorded with Airteam.
Key facts
- 75,000+ residential units in Gewobag's inventory
- 6 - 7 working days for manual measurement — today 6 minutes with the drone
- 360° recordings from hard-to-reach patios and back walls
- No more internal capacity is needed for object recording
- Several 100 objects/year should be digitized with Airteam in the future
- 100% digital collaboration through 3D models