Constructed environment or constructing environment: is construction involved, or is it a part of change?

While demand for construction is at its highest in newly industrializing and urbanizing societies, in post-industrialised society the role of construction is diminished. This claim embodies the theory that society can be built to completion in such a way that no further future investment would be required. The pattern of construction development in recent years, however, exposes the weakness of this theory. Many Western countries have been building extensively and have a backlog of construction demand in the pipeline, pending the next economic upswing. Why should these "ready-built" environments have such a high need for further construction? Or could it be that the construction industry itself strives, through active supply, to generate construction needs and changes in the operating environment? The source data for this study includes Finnish construction and economic time series data and databases produced by the Euroconstruct network. The study seeks to build the framework for an assessment model to illustrate the mutual interaction between construction and the operating environment.