Construction of the Future: How Digital Twins and Green Steel Will Transform Steel Structures in 2026
According to industry experts, in 2026 steel structures will cease to be merely load-bearing elements and will become the foundation for intelligent, environmentally friendly, and highly efficient buildings. Nikolai Botin, Head of Obninsk Steel Project, spoke about the key trends.
The main drivers of change will be the following areas:
- Digitalization of “smart” facilities. BIM modelling will become the foundation for managing the entire building lifecycle. Demand for digital twins — virtual copies of facilities that allow analysis of sensor data to prevent accidents and optimize energy consumption — is expected to grow.
- Environmental friendliness and conscious lifecycle. Demand for steel with a minimal carbon footprint will increase. The principle of a circular economy will prevail in design, where structures are initially created with the possibility of subsequent disassembly and reuse.
- New production technologies. Hybrid materials and metal 3D printing will be used more widely to create unique nodes, reducing timelines, minimizing waste, and opening new architectural possibilities.
- Robotization of construction sites. The use of autonomous machinery, drones for monitoring, and exoskeletons will become standard, increasing safety and accuracy of installation.
- Energy efficiency as a priority. The decisive criterion for selection will be not the construction price, but the total cost of ownership. Demand for autonomous buildings with integrated energy generation systems will grow.
- Boom in modular construction. Metal structures will become the basis for hybrid fast-track systems, allowing project delivery times to be reduced by 2–3 times at a fixed cost.
“There are all grounds to expect that 2026 will strengthen the trend of transforming steel structures from a simple load-bearing element of a building into an intelligent, environmentally friendly, and highly efficient platform,” emphasizes Nikolai Botin, General Director of Obninsk Steel Project.
Key modern trends in the steel construction segment will be discussed during the 11th All-Russian Conference “Steel Structures: Key Trends of 2026”, which will take place on May 27 as part of the Steel Structures'2026 exhibition.
