What materials will emerge from todays research ideas to become the commonly accepted building products of 2020? What will durable materials look like in 2020? This paper attempts to address these questions by considering some current trends and then presenting a series of ideas of what the next 2 decades may hold from an emerging materials standpoint for North American light-frame construction. Still, no one can predict the future. This paper reviews a series of recent trends in materials usage, construction engineering, and laboratory research. It also attempts to explicitly state its assumptions, which of course seriously affect any ensuing predictions. From the analysis of past trends and given the assumptions made, a series of current trends are extrapolated into the next 2 decades. The opinions expressed are merely those of the author and not that of any organization or association.