Futurebuild returns to ExCeL London from 12-14 May with a programme that leans heavily on a familiar industry challenge: how to translate ambition into delivery.
Framed around the theme of Connect, Futurebuild 2026 sets out to link policy, innovation and on-the-ground practice. There will be a particular emphasis on how technology and collaboration can reshape the way projects are designed, built and operated.
At the centre of the programme sits the main conference arena, backed by Mitsubishi Electric, which will focus on the 3Rs: resilience, reuse and regenerative design. These themes run through the wider programme, reflecting a sector that continues to move beyond net-zero rhetoric towards tangible progress.
Three stages
Across three core stages – Materials and Buildings, Energy, and Placemaking – the content largely mirrors the industry’s current pressure points. The Materials and Buildings stage, sponsored by Holcim, will explore regenerative approaches and the practicalities of scaling up low-impact materials. Contributions from groups such as Architects Declare and Alliance for Sustainable Building Products will address how niche innovations might move into the mainstream; a transition that has long proved difficult.
Meanwhile, the Energy stage, supported by Allume Energy, will look at the infrastructure and policy frameworks underpinning the energy transition. Sessions will cover heat networks, retrofit delivery and rooftop solar, alongside the increasingly complex role of carbon accounting in procurement. There is also a stronger social angle in previous years, with discussions on affordability and fuel poverty.
On the Placemaking stage, attention turns to how environmental performance aligns with wider questions of social value and resilience. Expect debates on green infrastructure, governance and the growing role of nature-led design, particularly as urban areas grapple with overlapping climate and biodiversity pressures.
Keynote
Running alongside the main event, the National Retrofit Conference, sponsored by Guildmore, will bring a more explicitly policy-led perspective. A keynote from the UK’s minister for energy consumers, Martin McCluskey, is likely to draw attention, particularly given the increasing urgency around scaling retrofit programmes and the gap between targets and delivery.
Futurebuild’s co-location with UK Construction Week London and The Stone & Surfaces Show adds to its draw, broadening the audience and reinforcing its position as a meeting point for different parts of the supply chain.
Supported by organisations including data and registration sponsor Barbour ABI, it brings together over 700 speakers across 13 stages and over 250 hours of CPD content. The real test, as ever, will be whether the conversations move beyond well-rehearsed themes and into something closer to implementation.
A platform for the next generation
This year, Futurebuild is putting a spotlight on early-career voices, with a strand of content aimed at tackling the construction sector’s green skills gap.
The focus reflects a wider concern that the workforce is not yet equipped to support the pace of the climate transition – a shortfall that is particularly acute in the built environment.
Against that backdrop, the event’s Arena Conference will include a session asking what the industry should look like beyond 2030. Chaired by Simon Rayner of the Climate Change Committee, the discussion brings together a group of younger professionals working across planning, engineering, architecture and construction.
Speakers include Munashe Mhemba, winner of the Building the Future Awards’ Young Planner of the Year 2025, Darcy Arnold-Jones of Marks Barfield Architects, Kimberley Ertl of Expedition Engineering, Thomas Yunqing Bai of Ares Landscape Architects, and Ahmed Gilani of the University of Reading.
The emphasis is on practical experience as much as future thinking; from circular design and material reuse to the realities of delivering low-carbon projects.
Beyond the panel, younger professionals will feature across the wider programme, including sessions in the National Retrofit Conference and a new fringe event organised by groups such as Architects’ Climate Action Network and Architects Declare.
While the industry has long talked about attracting new talent, the question remains whether platforms like this can translate visibility into lasting influence and, ultimately, into the skills needed to deliver change at scale.
Futurebuild 2026 Conference will take place from 12-14 May 2026 at London’s Excel. Click here to secure your free pass to Futurebuild and start connecting today courtesy of registration and data sponsor Barbour ABI.
