The paper discusses the application of carbon fibre composite materials in the building industry. It shows that carbon fibre composites are already established in certain areas of civil engineering, e.g. for the strengthening of the statics of buildings and bridges and as construction material. On the other hand special potential of the material, apart from mechanical features, which are advantageous in construction engineering, are identified. Selected examples of specific applications deduced from four characteristic properties of the material and the manufacturing process respectively, are described: 1) Utilisation of the anisotropy for the construction of flexible and at the same time stiff construction components, 2) integration of (multi-)functionalities, 3) utilisation of the low thermal expansion coefficient and 4) application of recycled carbon fibres in inorganic matrices