Hellenic Fire-Corps Scan2BIM Survey

3D Laser Scanning and Scan2BIM Survey of the Hellenic Fire Corps Training Center, Nea Makri, Greece

Purpose

The complete as-built 3D documentation of the 20 existing buildings at the former US Naval Communications Station in Nea Makri, Attica, was the prerequisite step before any redesign and construction work for their transformation into the new Hellenic Fire Corps Training Center could begin. The project was assigned to Astrolabe Engineering in early 2020 by Betaplan SA, the architectural firm leading the design of the new Training Center for the Hellenic Fire Corps.

The complex itself has a particular history. Built for the US Navy from the 1950s onwards as a high-frequency communications and ship-monitoring station for the Sixth Fleet, the facility was handed over to Greek authorities in 1990 and passed shortly after to the Hellenic Fire Service. By 2020 the predominantly steel-framed building stock — with concrete elements and a number of smaller concrete buildings interspersed — was three to six decades old. Structural inspection of the metallic frames was a core requirement of the survey: aged steel members were suspect for deformations that would need to be quantified before any reuse design could proceed.

The wider project sat against an emotionally charged backdrop. In the summer of 2018, the catastrophic wildfires that struck Attica — Mati above all — claimed more than a hundred lives. In response, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation announced a €25 million grant to support the Hellenic Fire Corps; €15.3 million of that was earmarked for a comprehensive, modern training centre, a yearslong aspiration of the Service since its founding in 1930. The contract for the “Complete Design and Supervision of the Fire Service Training Center in Nea Makri” was signed between the Fire Corps and Betaplan SA in January 2020. Betaplan then sub-contracted Astrolabe Engineering for the survey of the as-built condition of the 20 buildings — the foundation on which every subsequent design and construction package would be built.

Project tasks

Across roughly three months from fieldwork to final delivery — with handover completed in April 2020 — our 3D Laser Scanning team executed:

• 3D laser scanning using both FARO Focus X130 and FARO Focus M70 scanners across all 20 buildings — approximately 500 scans in total, capturing point cloud data with intensity and RGB at 5 mm resolution and ±2–3 mm accuracy
• Ground Control Points measured with GNSS receivers, and georeferencing of all data in HGRS’87 (EGSA’87)
• Point cloud registration in FARO Scene, conversion to Autodesk ReCap format, and import into Autodesk Revit for per-building 3D BIM authoring
• Structural inspection of the metallic frames using Gexcel 3D Reconstructor, with deformation analysis driving the per-building inspection maps
• Extraction of 2D CAD drawings (architectural plans, elevations, sections, details) directly from the Revit models

Conclusions – Results

The complete digital documentation package — delivered to Betaplan SA in April 2020 — comprised:

• 3D RGB georeferenced point cloud across the full building stock
• Per-building 3D Building Information Models (BIM) in Revit
• Detailed 2D architectural drawings (plans, elevations, sections, details) extracted from the BIM
• Inspection maps of the structural metallic frames per building
• 360° panoramic image datasets for project documentation and review

BIM modeling was supported by our chief modeler Stavros Fournaros and the company’s 3D laser scanning and Scan2BIM teams.

These deliverables became the as-built foundation that the multi-discipline design team — covering structural, geotechnical, M&E, hydraulic, landscape, and environmental design — built on through the rest of 2020 and into 2021. Construction was carried out by BALLIAN TECHNIKI S.A. through 2021–2022, and the new Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Hellenic Fire Corps Training Center was inaugurated on 30 March 2023 by President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos.

The 3.83-hectare campus — now hosting 20 fully renovated buildings (administrative areas, classrooms, practice rooms, living quarters) plus new outdoor training structures including an urban search-and-rescue course, a live-fire training building, and a building-façade climbing wall — is in active operational use. The 49th and 50th classes of Anthypopyragoi (Hellenic Fire Corps officers) were sworn in on its grounds in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

Related videos

Inauguration of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Hellenic Fire Corps Training Center — produced by SNF.

Work With Us

Considering Scan2BIM for an existing building stock — industrial, institutional, or cultural? Our 3D Laser Scanning and 3D Building Scan2BIM services have delivered the as-built foundation for projects across Greece and abroad. Tell us what you’re working on.