Top marks for BAU 2019

• A record number of exhibitors—2,250—give top marks to BAU
• 250,000 visitors, 85,000 of them (highest ever) from abroad
• digitalBAU to take place every two years from 2020 in Cologne

BAU 2019 was another record-breaking event. On an exhibition space totaling 200,000 square meters for the first time, 2,250 exhibitors (2017: 2,120) from 45 countries showcased their products and solutions for the building sector. Visitor numbers reached 250,000, with the figures for visitors from outside Germany climbing to a new high of 85,000 (2017: 80,500), from over 150 countries.

All of which underlines the status of BAU as the ‘World´s Leading Trade Fair for Architecture, Materials and Systems’. With almost 70,000 participants, one in four visitors came from the areas of architecture, engineering and planning.



Deputy Chairman of the Board Reinhard Pfeiffer is very satisfied with the success of BAU 2019: “The keen interest from visitors in building automation and BAU IT shows that the whole subject of digitalization is now gaining ground and finally being taken up in the building sector. With the key themes we identified for BAU 2019 we had already put the focus on the digital transformation.”



From the point of view of the exhibitors, Dieter Schäfer, Chairman of the Exhibitor Advisory Board of BAU, was also pleased with the results: “For the exhibitors BAU 2019 was a very successful trade fair. There were two main reasons for this. First the quality of the visitors and the international spread reflected among them has further increased. And second the fact that Messe München set out the additional exhibition space from a visitor perspective and thereby further developed the unique world of themes covered by BAU.” 



How satisfied the exhibitors were with BAU 2019 is also seen in the survey conducted by opinion researchers Gelszus. 97 percent of the exhibitors surveyed rated the trade fair as “excellent to good”. 95 percent said they recognized this event as the leading trade fair for the sector. 94 percent of the exhibitors gave top marks for the quality of the visitors, and 92 percent gave the same rating to the international spread among those visitors. On the question of how they saw the current economic situation in their sector, 94 percent of the exhibitors said it was “excellent to good” (2017: 91 percent).



Leading the table of visitors from outside Germany were again the neighboring countries of Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Big rises in the number of visitors from the Russian Federation (over 4,000 visitors this year) and China (over 3,500) put these countries in fourth and fifth place respectively, their highest ranking so far.

Cathrine Lee, Deputy General Manager Africa/Europe at KIN LONG, sees this strong visitor interest from China as the result of BAU´s involvement in the region: “The successful Fenestration BAU China ensured that this year we were able to welcome considerably more visitors from Asia, in particular China, to our booth.” And this year, for the first time, Israel made it into the top ten in the visitor table. Also a large joint stand from Israel was one of the attractions in the IT hall.



The survey of visitors revealed a high level of satisfaction, as it did last time in 2017. Again 98 percent of the visitors to BAU described the event as “excellent to good”, 97 percent said they intended to visit again in two years´ time. Top marks were given by the visitors in particular to the breadth and depth of the range on show at the fair (96 percent “excellent to good”) and to the presence of market leaders (95 percent).



In view of the increasing importance of digitalization in the construction sector, at the fair Messe München presented digitalBAU, a new trade fair concept in cooperation with the German association of building software (Bundesverband Bausoftware—BVBS).

BVBS Managing Director Michael Fritz is confident the new event will be a success: “We see high demand among all suppliers of digital applications to establish a further trade fair alongside the already very successful BAU. Planners, building firms and the skilled trades must inform themselves about the upcoming challenges and with digitalBAU we are offering an excellent opportunity for them to do so.”



digitalBAU takes place for the first time from February 11 to 13, 2020 in Cologne.



A new section of the exhibition and a key theme at this year´s BAU was building technologies and light, presented in Hall C2. In focus was the integration of different applications in the home and office, and the different aspects and influence of lighting in architecture.

Adalbert Neumann, Chairman of the Board of Management of Busch-Jaeger Elektro, was very happy: “We were able to show many architects that our broad-ranging portfolio of solutions offers enormous added benefit. The future is digital and we are working on that. BAU is a tremendous platform for presenting this to the trade audience.”



BAU 2019 was officially opened by Gunther Adler, State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI). In his speech he emphasized both the high status of the construction sector and of the trade fair: “BAU 2019 is the most important showcase of the capabilities of the German and international building industry. Here the German building sector demonstrates its excellent innovations strength.” Following a tour of the show, the State Secretary opened the BMI Conference called “Efficient, high-quality and digital—Building of tomorrow”. 



Under the motto of “We connect, we maximize, we inspire” the Digital Village in Hall C5 showed for the first time digital initiatives by the building industry together with the latest developments in software. Also, start-ups had the opportunity to present their business concepts. As part of digitalBAU 2020 the Digital Village is lining up for a second showing.

The next BAU takes place from January 11 to 16, 2021 at the Messe München Exhibition Center.