The CIB was founded in 1953 as Conseil International du Bâtiment and renamed as the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction in 1998. Eleven founding members were present at the meeting in Geneva, seventeen countries were represented, and subsequently 36 institutes came together to establish CIB as an NGO to focus on supporting post-war development, with three fields of activity: experimental research studies, the application of the results of research, and documentation.

The shared confident belief was that research had the capability to come up with solutions to many of the problems which beset Europe and the world at that time, with international co-operation in building research, studies and documentation regarded as an instrument for promoting a more rapid and cheaper rate of construction.

Now celebrating its 70th year, the agenda for change may have evolved, with the latest development being CIB’s explicit alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, but the underlying and enduring value of CIB remains the same.

To mark its 70th anniversary CIB has produced a commemerative brochure to highlight the achievements and future ambitions of CIB at various conferences and webinars during the year.

CIB-Celebrating-70-Years-spread-web

Speaking at the launch of CIB Celebrating 70 Years at the CIB Board meeting at Tsinghua University, China, CIB CEO Don Ward said

“I’m very proud of this commemorative brochure. We pay tribute to all the people involved with CIB over 70 years who worked so hard to advance the quality of research in the architecture, engineering and construction sector and the impact it has in better processes and better built environment. It is significant that we mark this anniversary with a focus on how such research contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and we are grateful to Prof Dongping Fang and his colleagues at Tsinghua University for enabling us to launch the brochure at a meeting of the CIB Board with leading Chinese universities and construction firms”.

Activities during CIB’s 70th year

Makarand Hastak speaking at podium
CIB President Makarand Hastak

“It is a great honour to be the 26th CIB President and even more so as we celebrate our 70th anniversary. I look forward to attending events and to meeting as many members as possible during the year.”

Professor Makarand Hastak, Purdue University, CIB President 2022-2025

“New materials, new forms of structure and new methods of construction have come from advances in science and technology; their adoption has been, and is being, stimulated by the economic pressures on the industry to raise its productivity and to keep pace with the rate of advance of other industries … We can learn by the mutual interchange of knowledge between different countries and different people…”

Dr. Frederick Measham Lea, CIB President 1959-62

Events

A list of events which will mark the 70th anniversary is as follows, to be included in this list please contact the CIB secretariat:

Slides and other information

A short slide deck to communicate the key points of CIB’s 70th anniversary is available to download here, this will be updated throughout the year.

A history of CIB’s first 40 years is available here as well as a copy of the 50th anniversary publication. You can also see the roll of honour of CIB’s Presidents and Director Generals/CEOs.