What I do is
:!gvim -c 'MyMake'
( where MyMake is the custom command which can switch to appropriate dir, make, and copen 20. )
and I am doing my job while build goes in the other window.
Other option:
You can redirect make progress to some file from the shell or within vim (:!make&). And then by using
:cfile make_result_file
:cw
or
:copen 20
Achieve the same result as you’d use :make