The future of building materials in research and practice

About 600 scientists as well as practical engineers from approx. 40 countries met at the ibausil in Weimar for an animated exchange of views (Fig. 1). The conference was organized by members of the F. A. Finger Institute for Building Materials Science of the Civil Engineering Department of Weimar Bauhaus University and takes place every three years. Also this time the focus of the 18^th International Conference on Building Materials was on the presentation of the results of basic research and to discuss the possibilities of their implementation. At the same time, new trends in developments and future priorities of work were shown. Another goal of the conference was to facilitate the transfer of the results of university research to practical use in construction engineering. The majority of professors dealing with building materials from Germany and many other countries took part in Weimar or were indirectly represented. Main topics related to manufacture were dealt with in lectures given by leading engineers from companies such as BASF SE, ­Cemex Research Group AG, ­Dyckerhoff AG, Schwenk Zement KG, ­HeidelbergCement Group, Holcim AG, Knauf Gips KG, Loesche GmbH, ThyssenKrupp Polysius AG and the Research Institute of the Cement Industry.