New Materials in Building and Public Works

There are two ways of apprehending the building and public works sector: The first is to consider that it undeniably remains a traditional sector. There are many grounds for this attitude, including dispension of firms, occupational compartmentation and diversity of products and application contexts. This does not mean that the sector is non-innovative, but it does appear to borrow most of its innovations from other sectors since the stimulus to innovate stems from demand rather than from any internal dynamism. Consequently, the changes induced by innovations often seem slow and uneventful, particularly as regards innovations concerning new materials. The introduction of new materials is apparently not governed by any specific mechanism and therefore cannot be analyzed as an established set of problems, in contrast to the situation in the transport sector. The upsurge of new materials in building and public works thus reflects the acceleration or intensification of developments specific to the sector and unrelated to these materials.The second is paradoxically to regard it as a modern sector, in view of the materials which it applies and its production structures. True enough, the concept of building in itself typifies the idea of a composite object incorporating extremely varied materials from time immemorial; the sector is a decisive proving ground for materials or methods incorporating advanced materials; the structure of the many different firms involved illustrates more vividly than any other the concept of a flexible network of highly decentralized firms; the sector constantly and characteristically endeavours to achieve adaptation of skills and compatibility between the various trades; lastly, it is a field in which quality control and codification of operative capacity have always been valued.