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 18th 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.
In 2012, for the first time they started with survey lectures. Leading scientists summarized the latest findings regarding important topics and showed development trends. The organizers could win over Professors Albrecht Wolter (Clausthal-Zellerfeld), Andre Nonat (Dijon), Wolfgang Brameshuber (Aachen) and Andreas Gerdes (Karlsruhe) for this task. This subject area was rounded off by Prof. Horst-Michael Ludwig (Weimar) who lectured on special problems of the durability of concrete (Fig. 2). The method-oriented lectures were a special field within the conference main areas focussed on building materials. New or specified investigation methods were presented in various lectures making it possible to cover many essential characteristics of building materials (from compacting up to durability) in a better way or to interpret them more clearly.
The ibausil has become a hub of knowledge transfer between East and West due to the participation of scientists from Eastern and Western Europe and overseas. The next ibausil will take place in 2015. Make a note of the date already today.