3D-printed houses, automatically designed hospitals, prefabricated skyscrapers — once futuristic dreams are now a reality as described in the new report Shaping the Future of Construction: Inspiring innovators redefine the industry developed with the World Economic Forum. It showcases and analyses 10 Lighthouse innovation cases – prominent flagship projects as well as start-ups and pilot projects – that demonstrate the potential of innovation in construction and give a glimpse of the industry’s future.

In the context of the Forum’s Future of Construction initiative, over the past year six Working Groups comprised of industry leaders, academics and experts met regularly to develop and analyse innovative ideas, their impact, the barriers to implementing solutions and the way forward to overcoming obstacles and implementing modern approaches in the construction and engineering industry.

This white paper presents the outcome of this work in the form of insight articles proposing innovative solutions on how to address the construction sector’s key challenges in the following fundamental challenge areas:

1. Project Delivery – Creating certainty of timely delivery and to budget, and generally improving the productivity of the construction sector

2. Life cycle Performance – Reducing the life cycle costs of assets and designing for re-use

3. Sustainability – Achieving carbon-neutral assets and reducing waste in the course of construction

4. Affordability – Creating high-quality, affordable infrastructure and housing

5. Disaster Resilience – Making infrastructure and buildings resilient to climate change and natural disasters

6. Flexibility, Liveability and Well-being – Creating infrastructure and buildings that improve the well-being of end-users

Together with these publications, the lighthouse innovation cases and the insight articles will be posted to the Future of Construction website to enhance awareness and collaboration among the extended stakeholders of our industry.

Read the 2016 report "Shaping the Future of Construction: A Breakthrough in Mindset and Technology"