Housing has emerged globally as one of the most pressing social and economic challenges. The supply of affordable, adequate and sustainable housing is struggling to keep pace with demand. Ageing, inefficient and inadequate dwelling stocks, partially influenced by the dynamics of the estate market, as well as the need for climate adaptation, and the rising cost of construction materials, are putting significant pressure on the construction sector. 

This NEXTBUILT edition particularly calls for insightful contributions that discuss policies, trends, strategies, methodologies, design approaches and technologies to tackle future needs by overcoming business-as-usual models. How to move from home for life to flexible dwellings that allow residents to remain in place over their changing circumstances (i.e. the number of inhabitants and number of rooms vary over time)? How to deal with very slow/no growth (i.e. no new build)? How can the building stock be retrofitted to accommodate more dwellings but smaller family sizes? What monitoring, feedback regulation, enforcement and management processes are needed to ensure residents’ health, well-being, and safety over the long term?  

The Conference offers the opportunity to bring together bright minds, giving idea-focused talks on four key topics and sharing lessons learned, inspirations, and pathways for the NEXT generation of housing.  

All submissions will enter a double-blind peer review process according to the rules of the Scientific Committee and the Springer policies. NEXT BUILT ensures a fair and transparent process. 

All accepted papers will be published in a NEXTBUILT 2026 special volume of Springer, a publication indexed by Scopus, Web of Science, Ei Compendex, etc. (CC BY Licence).

 The authors of distinguished papers selected by the Scientific Committee will be invited to submit an extended paper to highly ranked international scientific journals.