Abstract: The paper reviews the world-wide development of building construction, and summarizes the problems concerned currently. It states that the assessment and retrofitting of existing building structures are urgent and important. The paper lists the test contents, the detection techniques and the retrofitting methods for the four main building materials. The three assessment methods are compared and the relationship between different detection standards is discussed in this paper. The technology for the moving of a whole building is also presented. Some engineering examples are given. The development and common methods of building rectificatio are introduced. Finally, the perspectives for structural inspection, assessment and retrofitting in civil engineering are presented.