Collateral Events & Parallels
The events included in this programme complement and enrich the experience of the UIA World Congress of Architects Barcelona 2026, extending opportunities for debate, exchange, and participation beyond the official sessions.
On the one hand, collateral events are activities organised by independent institutions, organisations, or collectives that take place within one of the Congress’s official venues and during its official dates. These initiatives broaden the perspectives on the key themes addressed by the Congress, bringing together diverse voices, formats, and approaches that engage directly with the main programme.
On the other hand, parallel events are activities promoted by external organisations that take place outside the official Congress venues and, in some cases, beyond the dates covered by its programme. Nevertheless, they maintain a strong thematic connection with contemporary debates on architecture, cities, heritage, sustainability, culture, and social transformation, creating additional opportunities for reflection and public engagement.
Together, collateral and parallel events form a broader cultural and professional ecosystem that extends the impact of the Congress throughout the city. Their diversity of formats—including lectures, exhibitions, performances, seminars, professional gatherings, and academic activities—helps bring architecture closer to different audiences while fostering connections between disciplines, institutions, and communities. In this way, Barcelona becomes an open stage where architecture transcends the boundaries of the Congress and engages more deeply with society and the wider territory.
Collateral Events
The Future of Architecture and Architectural Criticism
Recent decades have witnessed the highest levels and fastest rates of construction development worldwide. Yet, the largest share of this record volume of construction is not designed by architects, and much of what has been built is of poor quality and therefore likely to have a short lifespan.
FORM FOLLOWS TRANSFORMATION – Moments that Redefine Europe’s Existing Buildings
Europe’s built environment is at a crossroads: the interconnected crises of housing and climate change demand a paradigm shift. With between 85% and 95% of today’s buildings expected to remain standing in 2050, the urgency of renovating, adapting, and reusing the existing building stock has never been clearer.
Heritage Futures: at the Crossroads of Artificial Intelligence and the Memory of Places
This side event aims to foster exchange between Chinese and Spanish experts in the fields of built heritage conservation and artificial intelligence. Both fields are experiencing significant recent developments in areas such as documentation; diagnosis and preventive conservation; restoration; management and dissemination; as well as risk assessment and prevention.
The Architect’s Blues: Navigating the Climate and Housing Crisis in Times of Economic Uncertainty
The architecture and design sectors face a triple crisis: economic uncertainty, the urgency of decarbonization, and a shortage of affordable housing. Organized by C40 Cities, this session explores the so-called “Architect’s Blues”—the professional and ethical tension between climate and social responsibilities on the one hand, and harsh market constraints on the other.
Parallels Events
The House of Encountering the Other
The House of Encountering the Other is an architectural structure composed of rooms built with fertile soil bags and native Mediterranean seeds. It poses the following question: Can architecture facilitate encounters between bodies, cultures, species, and narratives in a world marked by fragmentation?
The value of being an architect
The Value of Being an Architect is a cultural, academic, and professional initiative that brings together prominent Dominican architects in the city of Barcelona to reflect on how architecture has enabled the leadership of transformative spaces within society. Over the course of three days, Dominican professionals will share experiences in fields such as heritage, urban planning, communication, education, research, cultural diplomacy, and innovation.
Atlas Re-Building
Atlas Re-Building proposes a relational gesture: bringing architectural photographs of buildings undergoing rehabilitation into dialogue with works by contemporary artists from the Catalan and Spanish contexts, mainly sculptures and installations, in order to reveal shared approaches, languages, and interests between construction practice and artistic practice.
Architects, not Architecture | Barcelona Edition 2026
Architects, not Architecture (AnA) and VELUX join forces for a special evening in Barcelona focused on the reuse and transformation of buildings. The world-renowned event series brings a unique format where three international architects—Winy Maas (MVRDV), Xu Tiantian (DnA), and Arno Brandlhuber (bplus.xyz)—are invited to talk about their paths, major influences, and key career moments.