I recently spoke at the SPECS Show, a conference for the retail industry, and was excited to see about 100 attendees file in to hear several of us talk about metal buildings in the commercial marketplace. These people represented a cross section of management roles—from retail and commercial investors and owners to architects and engineers.
At the Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA), our passion is to spread knowledge and appreciation for metal building systems design. We are thrilled to see more and more industries embrace the quality, integrity, creativity and value of metal buildings.
This passion to reach out and spread the word extends to many significant audiences. For example, as you read this issue of Metal Architecture, the MBMA team will be in Nashville, presenting our annual faculty workshop for architecture professors from across the nation. Here, they’ll learn how to introduce metal buildings into their curriculum. They’ll hear from practicing architects how metal buildings can be used for a wide variety of low-rise, nonresidential structures. And they’ll gain knowledge from industry experts on why metal buildings are an environmentally sustainable solution. An added bonus is a tour of a metal building manufacturing plant where the professors will see first-hand the technology, processes and precision used to create the modern metal building.
Another important audience are the architects of the future. Currently, we have a student design competition underway that will award over $28,000 to students and faculty in 2023. When we started the competition last year, we were awed by the quality and creativity of the student entries. You can see a brief sampling of these entries on our video, MBMA 2021 Student Design Competition Montage, on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/mbmamedia. I think you’ll gain a new appreciation for the design abilities of next-generation architects if you spend just a few minutes perusing their work.
Yet another way we share the value of the industry is to promote special supplements, such as this presentation to and from architects, as detailed in this supplement, “How Metal Building Systems Meet the Needs of Architects.” We applaud Modern Trade Communications for all its diligent efforts to educate and inform its broad-based audience about the form, function and future of metal building technology.