Innovative materials and technologies in housing construction: importance and prospects

Introduction. The trends and prospects for the application of innovations in the housing construction in the Russian Federation are considered in the article. Materials and methods. The system approach, methods of structural analysis, classification and grouping, comparative and statistical analysis, forecasting and expert evaluations were used in the research. Works of Russian and foreign authors, experience of construction companies, statistics presented by Rosstat (Federal state Statistics Service), materials of the Moscow Agency of innovations, materials of business programmes of specialized exhibitions, conferences and forums were used as the material for the research. Results. The author systematized the current innovation trends broken down into (1) development and application of innovative construction materials and (2) creation and implementation of innovative technologies in construction. All innovations eventually reduce costs and terms; improve the quality of or cause an increase in the environmental friendliness of construction. The author formulated the basic condition of expediency of innovation introduction, or the improvement of an indicator of an innovative project in comparison with the basic option, other things being equal. The analysis of the situation also allowed identifying barriers, interfering with the introduction of innovations in the housing construction in the Russian Federation. Conclusions. The analysis has proved the demand and certain prerequisites for the development of innovative activities in the housing construction in Russia. Certain conditions are required for overcoming the existing barriers, preventing the wide-scale use of innovative technologies in housing construction, such as the better assessment of innovative projects, taking into account the features of housing construction; and consequently, a rise in investments into innovative housing construction projects; reasonable state regulation; regulatory framework improvement; advanced training of executives and providing the industry with managers, acting as innovators. Low-rise and single-family houses are the best options for innovations.