Making the past productive
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We, the guest editors of this issue, hosted the third edition of the Future of Construction Symposium: Making the Past Productive (4 to 6 November 2024) at the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio (AAM). Since its inception in 2022 by researchers at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) in spatial sensing, digital fabrication, and robotics, the symposium has become a platform for dialogue among architects, engineers, material and conservation scientists, digital fabricators, and industry representatives. It explores how environmental constraints, technological advances, and evolving societal expectations intersect in practice. Rather than separating innovation from material history or practice from research, the symposium frames construction as a cumulative context-bound field shaped by environmental, technical, and institutional forces, fostering exchange between academia and industry.
As researchers, innovators, and practitioners in heritage preservation, building research, architecture, computational design, and digital fabrication, we were brought together by a shared vision. In the context of the construction sector’s profound transformation, we believe valuable lessons can be drawn from past practices – their methods, processes, technological advances, and experimental approaches, whether successful or not.
This does not imply replicating historical techniques, but recognising that many contemporary challenges are not new. Construction has always been shaped by material and labour shortages, environmental limits, and rapid economic, societal, and technological change. Studying how previous generations addressed similar constraints reveals construction processes as repositories of knowledge, offering principles of material efficiency, structural intelligence, and climate‑responsive design qualities increasingly relevant under today’s environmental pressures.
This perspective is particularly important when transforming the existing building stock. As several contributions show, such transformations are closely tied to materials and construction processes. Reuse and adaptation depend on how materials age, deteriorate, and can be reworked. Material processes with long and layered histories, such as timber and earth and concrete, are rethought in contemporary practice to reduce major sources of CO2 emissions, with concrete in particular being re-evaluated by both industry and start-ups to develop more sustainable methods to use this material.
The Future of Construction 2024 symposium was organised around two interconnected themes: Building Stock & Circularity and Digital Processes & Fabrication – reflecting key trajectories in contemporary architectural and construction discourse. At their intersection, a more productive and sustainable future of construction emerges. As repair, maintenance, durability, circularity, and reuse gain prominence, the limitations of linear, extractive models are increasingly evident. While contemporary technologies are reshaping construction across scales, technology alone cannot solve all issues. The contributions in this issue demonstrate that these questions require both engagement with the existing context and past design, planning, and construction methods, as well as the cultivation of a more symbiotic relationship between technology, sustainability, and construction.
Across this issue, a shared narrative emerges around the urgent transformation of the built environment, particularly in relation to sustainability, circular construction, and regenerative approaches, as discussed by Stuart Smith and Clemens Wögerbauer. This perspective is also reflected in Ilmer Thies Architekten project on circular renovation and material innovation. Common ground is further established through Foldcast’s paper formwork technology, which reduces concrete use, and Rematter’s low-carbon hybrid timber and earth slab systems.
The use of earth is further discussed by Mirjam Kupferschmid and Roger Boltshauser, who frame its real-world application in architecture. In parallel, technological innovation plays a central role, with Design++ and Robert Flatt and colleagues addressing AIpowered conservation, robotic fabrication, and the convergence of AI, XR, and robotics–developments further reflected in applications by Mesh and LAYERED.
Complementing material and technological advances, the issue highlights the shift of mindset needed to address uncertainty, complexity, and future planning. Carole Pont Bourdin, Sarah Kristin Schalles, and Birgitta Schock emphasise foresight and adaptability, while Ioannis Mirtsopoulos and Jacqueline Pauli call for integrating historical insight with AI. Pierre Chèvremont and Lidor Gilad extend this dialogue between past and future, exploring AI as a tool to engage architectural history. Together, these perspectives frame the future of construction as an interplay between circularity, digital innovation, and human-centered approaches to thinking, collaborating, and building under uncertainty, while learning from the past.
This issue brings together diverse contributions to extend the discussion from the 2024 symposium, outline new directions, and anticipate the Future of Construction 2026 symposium at ETHZ. Rather than merging into a single position, the contributions remain distinct yet united by a focus on sustainability, circularity, and the value of interdisciplinary collaboration. They share an emphasis on existing building stock and heritage and a recognition that technological innovation must remain grounded in material and constructive realities. At the same time, many promising approaches presented here struggle to gain traction at scale. While the reasons vary, we encourage readers to question the standardised, risk‑averse norms and regulatory frameworks shaping the construction sector. Acknowledging these obstacles is crucial if innovation and renewed perspectives on heritage are to meaningfully inform the future transformation of the built environment.