Trends in the Building Industry

As a highly successful commercial concrete contractor, The Conco Companies have had the opportunity to be a part of many innovative architectural projects over our more than fifty years in the industry.  As such we are always interested in exciting new building trends.  The following information regarding the leading trends in the building industry is from an article by WTTW enews, which is a Chicago public media organization.     

The biggest trend continues to be the commitment toward building “greener”.  As WTTW reports, “Far from the flying cars and personal helipads envisioned by the fanciful futurists of the mid-twentieth century, trends in our built environment today are moving toward sustainability, renewable and recycled materials, energy efficiency, and a smaller footprint – both literally and figuratively.”

So what kinds of sustainable solutions are used to construct greener buildings?  A popular trend, especially in urban areas, is adaptive reuse, which takes a building that is no longer used for its original purpose and repurposes it for another use.  Another trend is taking old building materials and recycling them to be used in new building projects.  

One building trend that may soon come to the U.S. is tall wooden buildings that are called “woodscrapers” or “plyscrapers.”  Currently they are being mainly constructed in Europe and Canada.  Also affordable, greener modular and prefab construction is being constructed from sustainable and energy-efficient materials.    

At Conco we are involved in this next trend of building taller and taller skyscrapers throughout the world.  Other trends are moving toward building smaller homes, LEED-certified buildings rated for energy efficiency, building for disaster mitigation, and biomorphic forms.  Finally architecture as public health includes building housing that is walker friendly and incorporating projects such as bike paths and walking trails around neighborhoods. 

Source:

interactive.wttw.com/tenbuildings/ten-building-trends-could-change-america

 

Conco is a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States.  Our services include commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects and highways.  We have four regional offices serving California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado.