The 16th International Conference on Contemporary Theory and Practice in Construction – STEPGRAD was held on June 13-14, 2024, at the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, University of Banja Luka.

As in previous years, this year's STEPGRAD successfully continued the tradition of connecting researchers, educators, and professionals from around the world, experts in civil engineering, architecture, geodesy, and related fields. The conference facilitated interaction between students, young engineers, and scientists with more experienced members of the academic and professional community to discuss contemporary challenges in construction. The published papers provide insights into current scientific and professional knowledge in computational mechanics, engineering structures, construction materials, transportation, energy efficiency, urban planning, architecture, architectural history, geodesy, engineering education, and more.

It is important to note that through the dedicated work of the conference organizers, since 2016 when STEPGRAD became fully integrated into the Faculty, and thanks to the consistent application of strict academic standards and continuous progress in achieving quality and excellence, the Ministry of Scientific and Technological Development and Higher Education of the Republic of Srpska has ranked STEPGRAD in the highest category - an International Scientific Conference of Special Importance.

This year, out of nearly 90 submitted manuscripts, 74 were accepted and categorized. Each paper was reviewed by at least two reviewers, members of the Scientific Committee. In addition to the mentioned papers, the conference was enriched by four papers from plenary speakers, researchers from prestigious international institutions: Prof. Ajla Akšamija, PhD, from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City (USA), Dr. Todor Stojanovski from the Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), Prof. Dr. Vlatko Šešov from the Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, Skopje (North Macedonia), and Prof. Dr. Marija Nefovska Danilović from the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade (Serbia).

The published papers are works of authors from fourteen countries. As in previous years, all papers are indexed in the CrossRef database, as well as in Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate services. In accordance with the principles of open science, all papers are fully available on the Conference website stepgrad.aggf.unibl.org.

STEPGRADE, in this scope and at this level of quality, would not be possible without the participation of co-organizers, six from abroad and two from the country, the exceptional contribution of reviewers and plenary speakers, as well as the material support of sponsors and friends of STEPGRADE.