Construmat, optimistic the challenge

That is why the expected participation is very similar to the last edition of this professional Conference, who received 150,000 visitors. But this time, exhibitors will concentrate on three of the pavilions of the Gran Via venue with the aim of encouraging contacts, enhancing the brand 'made in Spain' and a special interest in the international market. Construmat 2011 will feature "an Office of the Icex", for information on doing business internationally, not only for companies, but also to professions explained Pilar Navarro, Director of the Hall.

The spaces of Construmat

• Pavilion 1

• Pavilion 2

• Pavilion 3

Construmat 2011 has technical conference structured in four thematic areas: innovation, sustainability, rehabilitation and sectoral. Some examples of these exchanges of knowledge are the conferencias-taller of Mater (the FAD materials Center); the session on the technical inspection of buildings (ITE) from a European perspective; the conferences on the window of wood in green building, or on glass as a key element in future in sustainable construction; or the holding, for the first time, of Sustainable Thinking Forum (forum for sustainable thinking), with architects such as William McDonough, Shigeru Ban and Felipe Pich-Aguilera.

The Hall has convened the fourteenth edition of the Construmat awards for innovation in the construction, in three sections: construction, Civil Engineering and construction product. Another attraction of the Hall will be the second contest of installers of Parquet, which organized the Spanish Federation of the pavement of wood (FEPM) and the Catalan Association of industrialists of the Parquet (Acip). Among the classics of Construmat, is the competition of masonry, where a bricklayer and a pawn must lift a piece in the shortest possible time and maximum quality.

On the other hand, the activity Meet2B Eco4B will offer participants the possibility of contact with buyers and distributors in the field of sustainable construction in Europe, at the stand of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce. Under the Commissariat of the architect Ignacio Paricio, the sixth edition of Casa Barcelona, project which is proposed to link the construction industry with the architectural design, this exemplified the project of a residential building carried out occurs, on this occasion, by Ramón Sanabria and Jaime Coll, Patxi Mangado.

Construmat 2011 will also show the models of the solar homes submitted by 20 teams from 15 countries in the second edition of the Solar Decathlon Europe competition, organized by the Ministry of public works and the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

• Periodicity: Biennial.
• Edition: seventeenth.
• Dates: 16-21 May 2011.
• Location: Venue Gran Via-Fira de Barcelona in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona). Pavilions 1, 2 and 3.
• Exhibitors: 1,300.
• Surface area: 35,000 m².
• Organised by: Fira de Barcelona.