Sustainability, technology and innovation at CONSTRUTEC 2018

The main CONSTRUTEC innovations in this edition are its two new areas: CONSTRUTEC ZERO and CONSTRUTIC, spaces that are in line with the current industry needs and trends. CONSTRUTEC ZERO will focus on boosting energy efficiency, sustainable building, organic materials and stamps and certifications. Whilst CONSTRUTIC will be channelled towards digital technologies, IT, Automation and Control, IoT, Services, 3D and Virtual Reality.

These new proposals are orientated around making professionals aware of the need to achieve more sustainable, smart and connected buildings, and to show how it is possible to put these objectives into practice as they already constitute an obvious necessity in modern society and they will be essential requirements for survival and competitiveness in the market for all the companies and developers involved in the construction and building world.

More synergy

The expansion of CONSTRUTEC 2018 under the ePower&Building umbrella will multiply the synergy between participating companies and sectors. This huge meeting hosts the IFEMA events related to the construction world for the second time: BIMEXPO, ARCHISTONE, VETECO, MATELEC and MATELEC LIGHTING. An event that expects to bring together 1,600 exhibiting companies – 25% more than in the last edition in 2016 – and over 80,000 professionals from 100 countries. Likewise, and coinciding with these trade shows, MATELEC INDUSTRY, the International Solutions for Industry and Smart Factory Fair, will be held again.

At CONSTRUTEC there will be a particular emphasis placed on orientating construction companies and developers as big buyers in their geographical activity areas. In this sense, the most innovative offers in structures, installations and construction systems; cladding, exterior renders and coverings; materials, fittings and interior architecture, and construction machinery, tools and equipment will all be on show.

This offer will be complemented with the offer provided by the natural stone sector, which was previously part of the PIEDRA Fair and from now on will be called ARCHISTONE, the International Trade Fair for Stone Architecture. There, companies will present their best natural stone proposals for architecture and building. To do so, the event will organise its offer around the sectors of architectural solutions for building; design and interior design; town planning and landscaping; surface treatment technology; quarries, processing and transformation, and machinery and accessories. With that in mind, STONEDAY will take place on 14th November 2018.

The trade event is rounded off with a new edition – the second – of the leading European Fair for BIM services, networking, know-how and solutions, BIMEXPO, at which the latest market trends in technological innovations and regulations will be presented.

On the other hand and within the workshop programme that will take place alongside the trade show as part of CONSTRUTEC and the rest of the shows making up ePower&Building, Arquitectura con Eñe will be given the centre stage again, as a point of meeting, business, knowledge and trend sharing for architectural studios, engineering firms, builders, developers, real estate investment trusts, etc. – a space for creating links between exhibiting companies and specifiers looking for business and collaboration channels, and where there will be project presentations, architecture contests, meetings, guided tours, etc. What really stands out about Arquitectura con Eñe is the space called La Plaza (the square) and the different activities and competitions focused on the world of architecture.

Furthermore, CONSTRUTEC will be making a series of measures available that are designed to help the exhibiting companies to obtain a greater return on their investments, a higher profile for what they are offering and the loyalty of building industry operators: offer personalisation, a stronger seminar programme, higher performance levels (B2B meetings diary, professional meeting point, newsletters, etc.), and an international professional visitors campaign, among other measures.

Sustainable building

Efficiency and sustainability have become catalysts in a sector that is looking for the best solutions and requires a response from professionals and experts. In this way, CONSTRUTEC 2018 will hold different sessions about sustainable building, the circular economy and energy transition. The meetings will be organised by Green Building Council Spain (GBCe) and will take place within CONSTRUTEC ZERO, the new area at the fair for energy efficiency. GBCe is affiliated with the World Green Building Council (WGBC), a global reference point for sustainable building.

According to Bruno Sauer, Managing Director at GBCe, “we are very happy to have reached this agreement with CONSTRUTEC which will allow us to share the conclusions of some of the main projects that we are working on with those attending. At the moment, we are immersed in the EeMAP project along with other European GBCs which aims to demonstrate the economic viability of a “green mortgage”. Energy Transition is also the subject of debate and work at the heart of GBCe, and finally, we have also made important progress in our Circular Economy Work Group which we will be delighted to share at these sessions.”

The first session organised at CONSTRUTEC ZERO will take place on 14th November and will deal with “Sustainable Building valuation and financing”; the next day there will be a debate about “The Transition to the Circular Economy”, and on 16th November there will be a round table event about “Energy Transition and Climate Change in the Building Sector”. In this way, the meetings will deal with three of the topics that are considered most interesting at the moment regarding sustainable building, and which also constitute the biggest challenges for the building sector as a whole in the next few years.

The meeting on “The valuation and financing of Sustainable Building” will be presenting the latest from the market on the valuation, appraisal and financing of buildings constructed with sustainability criteria. It will also feature outstanding speakers from the field of appraisal, valuation and the financial world, as well as developers working within sustainable construction.

The session about “The Transition towards a Circular Economy” will lay out the challenges that the circular economy poses in both the short and medium term in our industry and how it has an impact at different levels, from product and building system manufacturing to buildings and the urban environment. There will be guest speakers and round tables, as well as a more interactive workshop part, looking for input from key players and visitors to the fair.

For its part, the round table about “Energy Transition and Climate Change for Building” will take time out to reflect with experts and political party representatives.

All the solutions

ePower&Building, the meeting which includes CONSTRUTEC 2018, is the main European event that brings all the solutions for the construction life cycle together. It will be framed as part of a new economic scenario, innovation in products and solutions, a new commercial dynamism and the need to update business contacts in this new starting point for the building sector, which need a large commercial platform and meeting point to serve as a lever for the sector. In this way, ePower & Building becomes the largest event in Southern Europe with solutions for the entire life cycle of a building, from the project phase, through execution and construction, and including usability and maintenance, renovation and rehabilitation, and demolition, completing the circular economy.

The meeting will, yet again, be the great platform of commercial links for the domestic and international markets. From architectural specification to installation, via builders, developers, distribution and marketing companies, facilities and project managers, engineering firms, etc.  focusing on promoting and spreading the message and the importance of the global, transversal and multidisciplinary value chain of the building industry.

To cover the building sector more widely, the edition incorporates new sectors. Besides CONSTRUTEC ZERO, CONSTRUTIC and the evolution of the STONE Fair at ARCHISTONE, the novelties also include VETECO GLASS, as well as the Lighting industry which will be represented by MATELEC LIGHTING.

VETECO, the International Window, Façade and Solar Protection Exhibition, has created VETECO GLASS as a sector with its own identity and with a well-defined space within VETECO, aimed at the entire glass industry: from manufacturers to processors, who, in turn, are suppliers of window manufacturers, façade builders, glaziers, etc. It also serves a large number of equipment and machinery manufacturers and distributors, which support glass systems (machinery, tools, fittings and accessories, sealants, microprofiles, etc.). As proof of the importance of this field, VETECO GLASS will host a single-themed conference on the glass sector applied to construction and building.

VETECO SOLAR, created in 2016, has been consolidated, dedicated exclusively to the solar segment, and focusing on the specifier and Architecture channel, construction and renovation companies, as well as on the professionals, manufacturers, workshops and installers at the Fair. Moreover, VETECO SOLAR will again host the Iberian Congress of Solar Protection and Control.

MATELEC, the International Solutions Show for the Electrical and Electronic Industry will highlight the digital transformation the sector is undergoing, from the manufacturer, to the distributor and the installer and integrator. An edition clearly aimed at helping to energise the sector. To do so, the event establishes two strategic axes, self-generation and the electric vehicle, two business niches that are already offering great opportunities, that MATELEC will promote from the Fair.

The Lighting sector, which has always been a part of MATELEC, is being transformed on this occasion into MATELEC LIGHTING, to give it its own identity. An exclusive event for this industry, which will reinforce its own profile, while maintaining the synergies with MATELEC, Europe’s leading fair. In this edition, you will be able to see a greater and more innovative offer in LED, technical lighting, exterior lighting, components, electrical engineering, efficiency, design, new solutions for architecture, etc.

With the aim of boosting its international nature and helping to penetrate new markets, MATELEC will welcome the figure of guest importer country for the first time in this edition. Together with ICEX, at the event there will be trade missions from Morocco and Colombia to enable trade meetings between important international buyers and companies participating at MATELEC.

Trade tools

ePower&Building, the big event within which CONSTRUTEC 2018 will take place, will make Madrid the capital of the building industry for a few days. With it, IFEMA wants to contribute to positioning Spain in the international panorama of the construction and industrial sector, encouraging international business opportunities, and boosting the domestic market.

To this end, and in order to help participating companies and professionals achieve maximum profitability, the fair institution will implement in each of its ePower & Building halls all the necessary commercial tools, such as workshops, demonstrations, technical training rooms, national and international guest buyer programmes, B2B meeting agendas, communications, etc.

Likewise, an intense agenda of conferences and professional meetings, including congresses, specific to each one of ePower & Building 2018’s events, is being drawn up.

ePower & Building is the commercial event that exhibits the building industry’s offer on even-numbered years. Furthermore, to give this great meeting continuity on odd years, in 2017 ePower & Building THE SUMMIT, the 1st European Building, Habitability, Economics and Leadership Congress, was held. It brought together 50 speakers from all over the world, who offered the main keys to the building in the future, in a scenario of analysis and debate of considerable international importance.