About the Congress
The UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona is a unique international event for architectural dialogue, bringing together renowned architects, researchers, and leading figures from various disciplines. It is organised by the International Union of Architects (UIA, by its French acronym), a non-governmental organisation that unites national associations of architects from over 100 countries and represents more than one million professionals. The Congress takes place every three years in a different city. In 2026, it will be held in Barcelona, and the city has consequently been designated by UNESCO as the World Capital of Architecture 2026.
Barcelona 2026. A variety of events
Picture by Alessandro Avondo, 2019
Three decades after hosting the 19th UIA Congress in 1996, Barcelona will once again welcome this worldwide gathering, becoming the first city to host the event twice. The UIABCNWC26 Congress will take place in Barcelona and its metropolitan area on 29-30 June and 1 July 2026, preceded by a week of activities, including an international student workshop and various collateral events.
Over the course of three days, with more than 200 speakers from around the globe, the congress will feature a diverse programme of talks and debates, showcasing original “research by design” projects and built prototypes. It will also include a range of exhibitions reflecting the body of work presented at the congress, as well as the results from an international student competition and the workshop. The event will officially open on the evening of 28 June with an inaugural celebration and will conclude on 2 July with the closing ceremony.
Line-up will be announced soon.
The city as a laboratory
Barcelona can be viewed as an ever-evolving urban laboratory, where architecture serves as a driving force behind social, political, economic, and cultural transformations. Throughout its history, the city has undergone key urban milestones, such as the Cerdà Plan of 1859, the Universal Expositions of 1888 and 1929, the rationalism of the GATCPAC in the 1930s, the General Metropolitan Plan of 1976, the Olympic transformation of 1992, and the current Superblocks project. Some of these transformations have established Barcelona as an international benchmark in urban planning and regeneration.
In the context of contemporary ecological and social challenges, Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition views the territory of Barcelona as an open-ended laboratory: grounded, transcultural, transspecies, and transscalar. Rather than treating the city as a mere model, we seek to learn from it critically, inhabiting both its virtues and its flaws through a series of ‘by design’ investigations. This will not provide a clean and predictable laboratory, rather a collection of vivid and fragmentary situations with the capacity of triggering valuable architectural investigations.
Previous editions
The first UIA Congress of Architects, which also marked the institution’s founding, was held in Lausanne in 1948 during post-war reconstruction. Since then, UIA congresses have been held every three years in a member country, serving as the organisation’s main recurring event.
Each congress focuses on a key topic relevant to the profession, summarized in a theme. Recent themes include:
Copenhagen 2023:
Sustainable Futures. Leave no one behind.
Rio 2020-2021:
All the worlds. Just one World.
Seoul 2017:
Soul of City.
Durban 2014:
Architecture Otherwhere.
Tokyo 2011:
Design 2050.
Turin 2008:
Transmitting Architecture.
Istanbul 2005:
Grand Bazaar of Architectures.
Berlin 2002:
Resource Architecture.
Beijing 1999:
Architecture of the 21st Century.
Barcelona 1996:
Present and Futures: Architecture in Cities.
The theme of this edition
For the first time, the theme of the UIA World Congress of Architects was selected through an international competition, designed to stimulate reflection and expand collective thinking for a congress of global significance.
The winning proposal, titled Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition, was developed by a group of architects from Barcelona, forming the curatorial team of the congress. The team represents multiple generations and brings together a combination of professional and academic expertise.
Organiser
The UIA has its local representative in Spain: the Higher Council of Professional Associations of Architects of Spain (CSCAE). The CSCAE is composed of various regional associations, including The Architects’ Association of Catalonia (COAC); together, they have been entrusted with the organisation of the Congress.
Marta Vall-llossera (President of the CSCAE) holds the Presidency of the Congress, with Teresa Táboas (Vice President of the UIA and President of Region I) as Vice President and Guim Costa Calsamiglia (Dean of the COAC) as Congress Director. Joan Busquets serves as Honorary President of the Congress, and Fuensanta Nieto as President of the Scientific Committee.
The UIABCNWC26 receives institutional support and is funded by the Ministry of Urban Agenda, Housing and Architecture of Spain (MIVAU), the Department of Territory of the Government of Catalonia, and the Barcelona City Council.
Scientific committee
The Scientific Committee serves as an advisory board, ensuring the project meets the high standards expected for an event of the UIA World Congress of Architects’ significance and effectively incorporates feedback.
Regina Gonthier
President of the UIA
Marta Vall-llossera
President of the UIA 2026 Congress
Teresa Táboas
Vice President of the UIA 2026 Congress
Guim Costa
Director of the UIA 2026 Congress
Joan Busquets
Honorary President of the UIA 2026 Congress
Fuensanta Nieto
President of the UIA 2026 Scientific Committee
Iñaqui Carnicero
Secretary General for Urban Agenda, Housing, and Architecture. Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda of Spain
Agustí Serra
General Director of Regional Planning, Strategic Projects and Architecture of the Government of Catalonia
Maria Buhigas
Chief Architect of the City Council of Barcelona
Curators of the Congress
Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition.
Pau Bajet
Mariona Benedito
Maria Giramé
Tomeu Ramis
Pau Sarquella
Carmen Torres
UIA Regional Delegates
Alessandro Bonizzoni
UIA Delegate, Region I
Yannis Zaboleas
UIA Delegate, Region II
Alejandro Echeverri
UIA Delegate, Region III
George Kunihiro
UIA Delegate, Region IV
Chrisna Duplessis
UIA Delegate, Region V
CSCAE/COAC Advisors
Meritxell Inaraja
Josep Lluís Mateo
Mar Santamaria
Elisa Valero
Oscar Ares
The curatorial team is formed by a collective of architects spanning generations —Pau Bajet, Mariona Benedito, Maria Giramé, Tomeu Ramis, Pau Sarquella, and Carmen Torres— who operate from the expansive landscape of Barcelona.
They all hold teaching positions at several institutions, including ETSAB, ETSAV, ETSALS, EPS ARQ Girona, WashU Sam Fox School, and IE Architecture and Design, where they have developed research studios recognized for their pedagogical excellence.
Their architectural practices, Bajet Giramé, Mariona Benedito, FLEXOarquitectura and Sarquella Torres, have been widely published and awarded. Their ongoing projects encompass a variety of scales and project typologies including social housing, public facilities, rural campsites, retrofit domestic spaces, ephemeral installations and product design. Individually and collectively, they have curated and designed exhibitions, publications and lecture series.
;)
Pau Bajet
Architect graduated from ETSAB-UPC in 2013. Awarded a PhD in 2023 by The School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University granted by La Caixa Fellowship for Postgraduate Studies. He is an Associate Professor of Architectural Design at ETSAB since 2017, and a teacher in Social Logics at MIAD, ETSALS-URL since 2020.
After working at David Chipperfield Architects in London, he co-founded Bajet Giramé in 2017 with Maria Giramé. The practice has been awarded the ARQUIN-FAD Award 2024 for the category of “City and Landscape” for the project Camping Alfacs and has been finalist for the AR Emerging Awards (UK) 2024 that recognises the 15 most relevant young architectural practices of the year. Other recognitions include the XI, XII, and XIII AJAC Awards as well as the Gold Award Best Architects 2018. Bajet Giramé has been acknowledged in international competitions, including the Lisbon Triennale, Eme3, and Europan, and has been awarded 1st prize in multiple national public competitions. Pau co-directed Quaderns d’arquitectura i urbanisme No. 274 (Spring 2024) and co-curated the exhibition Unveiled Affinities: Quaderns in Europe at COAC Barcelona in 2019.
Mariona Benedito
Architect graduated from ETSAB-UPC in 2000, with an Advanced Studies Diploma in Housing from the 40’s-60’s in Barcelona. She is an Associate Professor of Architectural Design at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia since 2003, and her research studio has been recognized as a finalist among the best pedagogies of the XIII BIAU. She is Associate Professor and Coordinator at IE Architecture&Design school. Mariona has previously taught and directed workshops at institutions such as ETSALS URL, ETH-Zurich, Fundació UPC, BAU School of Design, Sam Fox School of Design at Washington University in Saint Louis, ESARQ-UIC, and ETSAB-UPC.
Co-founder of the Architecture Studio MIM-A in 2000, she has been working on her own solo practice since 2020. Her work has been awarded with relevant Prizes such as the ARQUIN-FAD Award 2020, New European Bauhaus Mention, Catalunya Construcció Prize, ARQUIN-FAD Award 2015, finalist for the XV BEAU and EU Mies van der Rohe Award and selected for the 7th European Landscape Biennal. Mariona has curated and designed exhibitions such as Arquitectura, Universitat i Territori at COAC (2000), Emergencias at COAC (2000), Maquina Climàtica (2025) and the EPISODE lecture series (2020-2024) at ETSAV-UPC.
Maria Giramé
Architect graduated from ETSAB-UPC in 2013. She is an Associate Professor of Architectural Design at ETSALS-URL since 2020.
After working at David Chipperfield Architects in London, Maria co-founded Bajet Giramé in 2017 with Pau Bajet. The practice has been awarded the ARQUIN-FAD Award 2024 for the category of “City and Landscape” for the project Camping Alfacs and has been finalist for the AR Emerging Awards (UK) 2024 that recognises the 15 most relevant young architectural practices of the year. Other recognitions include the XI, XII, and XIII AJAC Awards as well as the Gold Award Best Architects 2018. Bajet Giramé has been acknowledged in international competitions, including the Lisbon Triennale, Eme3, and Europan, and has been awarded 1st prize in multiple national public competitions. Maria co-directed Quaderns d’arquitectura i urbanisme No. 274 (Spring 2024) and co-curated the exhibition Unveiled Affinities: Quaderns in Europe at COAC Barcelona in 2019.
Tomeu Ramis
Architect graduated from ETSAB-UPC in 2002. He is an associate Professor of Architectural Design at Washington University, since 2024, and at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia since 2003. His research studio was finalist at the best pedagogies of the XIII BIAU. Tomeu has previously taught and directed workshops at institutions such as ETSALS, URL, ETH-Zurich, UdG University, IE University, the IASAP-Illinois, and ESARQ-UIC.
He co-founded FLEXOarquitectura in 2002, whose work has been widely exhibited and published internationally. His projects have earned recognition as finalists for the ENOR Awards (2011), CSCAE Awards (2020–2021), and XV BEAU (2021), and have been shortlisted for the FAD Awards (2011, 2020). His work was showcased at the Venice Biennale (2012, 2016) and nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2013.He has received several prestigious prizes, including 1st Prize at the Premis AJAC IX (2014), the Ciutat de Palma award (2012), the Menorca awards (2005-2008) and the Mallorca awards (2007-2010). His work includes designing the exhibition “2G 10 Years Competition” (Barcelona, Venice, Las Palmas, 2019), the installation “Memoria Cronotopica” at MODEL architecture Festival (Barcelona, 2023), and co-curating the EPISODE lecture series at ETSAV-UPC (2020-2024).
Pau Sarquella
Architect graduated from ETSAB-UPC in 2011. He is an Associate Professor of Architectural Design at EPS ARQ Girona University, since 2020, and at ETSALS-URL, since 2020. In 2015, he moved to Bangkok, Thailand, to teach as a studio professor at INDA Chulalongkorn University (2015-2018).
In 2019 he founded Sarquella Torres Architects in Banyoles with Carmen Torres. The practice has been awarded in the ARQUIN-FAD International Award 2019, with a jury mention and the opinion prize for the Bang Nong Saeng Kindergarten (Thailand, 2018). Other recognitions include the International Bauwelt Prize: First Works 2015 (Germany), Arquia Próxima (2014, 2018, 2022), AJAC Awards (IX, XI, XII) and Europan17. Pau was also nominated for the International Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative in 2016. He co-founded Persiana Barcelona in 2014, a company that redesigned the traditional roller blind, which won the Silver Delta (ADI FAD) and the Arquia Próxima award in 2016. Pau and Carmen have curated and designed exhibitions such as Premis d’Arquitectura de les Comarques de Girona, INDA Parade (2018 Thailand), El Millor Disseny de l’Any (2019-2021), Arquitectura i Ciutat a Banyoles, and A través de les Pesqueres – L’exposició que no es va dur a terme (2023).
Carmen Torres
Architect graduated from ETSAB-UPC in 2011. She is an Associate Professor of Architectural Design at ETSAV UPC (2019 – to date), where her research studio was recognized as a finalist among the best pedagogies of the XIII BIAU. After three years working for various architectural practices in Paris, Carmen moved to Bangkok, Thailand, to teach as a studio professor at INDA Chulalongkorn University (2015-2018).
In 2019 she founded Sarquella Torres Architects in Banyoles with Pau Sarquella. The practice has been awarded in the ARQUIN-FAD International Award 2019, with a jury mention and the opinion prize for the Bang Nong Saeng Kindergarten (Thailand, 2018). Other recognitions include the International Bauwelt Prize: First Works 2015 (Germany), Arquia Próxima (2014, 2018, 2022), AJAC Awards (IX, XI, XII) and Europan17. They have also curated exhibitions, including Premis d’Arquitectura de les Comarques de Girona, INDA Parade (2018 Thailand), El Millor Disseny de l’Any (2019-2021), Arquitectura i Ciutat a Banyoles, and A través de les Pesqueres – L’exposició que no es va dur a terme (2023).
The curatorial team acknowledges José Zabala as co-curator in the competition phase; Urtzi Grau and Anna Puigjaner as curatorial advisors; Bernat Ginot as collaborator; and Eduard Fernàndez, Arnau Pascual, Laura Solsona, Pol Pérez and Judit Musachs as collaborators in the competition phase.
The International Union of Architects / Union Internationale des Architectes (UIA) is a federation of national professional organisations working to unify architects, influence public policies and advance architecture in service to the needs of society.
Founded on 28 June 1948 in Lausanne, Switzerland, its headquarters are in Paris, France. The organisation is recognised as the only global architectural body by numerous United Nations agencies, including UNESCO, UN-Habitat, WHO, ECOSOC, UNIDO and WTO. The current (2023-2026) president is Regina Gonthier from Switzerland.
UIA Congresses are organised by a host UIA Member Section. Congress bids are submitted to the UIA General Assembly and selected by vote six years in advance. These Congresses are key events for professional and cultural exchange, bringing together thousands of architects from around the world. Each congress focuses on a specific theme related to architecture, developed by leading figures in architecture, urban planning and the built environment. The event features debates, exhibitions, tours and networking opportunities, making it an ideal gathering for professionals, colleagues, friends, and students of architecture.
Mission, Goals, and Objectives
Mission
Unify architects, influence public policies, advance architecture in service to the needs of society, cooperate for a solidary, equitable, inclusive, sustainable, peaceful world, unite architects on common professional goals and ethical values and produce valuable professional outcomes and positions.
Goals
Serve as the global representative of the profession, shape policies and influence global decision-makers, act as a catalyst for global architectural knowledge, act as a central hub for professional information and facilitate connections among professionals worldwide.
Objectives
The UIA’s main objectives are:
Unite the world’s architects on a democratic basis, strengthening bonds of friendship and intellectual, artistic, scientific, and professional ties, maintain unrestricted contact between architects worldwide, regardless of national or political boundaries, represent the profession at an international level, maintain public confidence in the integrity and ability of architects, develop and promote progressive ideas in architecture and related fields, applying them for the welfare of communities, define and adapt the architect’s role in an evolving world, encourage collaboration between architects and other disciplines while emphasising the value of architectural work, promote spatial and three-dimensional awareness in general education, highlight the architect’s role in ensuring quality, sustainability, and cultural values, emphasising the holistic nature of architecture and urban design, support architectural organisations worldwide, advocate for internationally recognised standards of professional competence to practice and mutual recognition of qualifications, encourage architectural education, fostering international exchange and cooperation, contribute to global peace as a foundation for meeting people’s needs and aspirations, advocate for human dignity and the eradication of all forms of violence, discrimination, and inequity and promote environmental and climate conditions that allow life in a balanced ecosystem and the well- being of humanity.
Members and Governance
Membership
The UIA divides its membership into five regions. The primary professional organisation representing architects in a given country or territory may become a UIA Member Section.
Region I (Western Europe): 14 Member Sections, 19 countries, 253,574 architects.
Region II (Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East): 25 Member Sections, 27 countries, 112,905 architects.
Region III (The Americas): 20 Member Sections, 164,783 architects.
Region IV (Asia and Oceania): 22 Member Sections, 129,593 architects.
Region V (Africa): 33 Member Sections, 83,483 architects.
Governance
The governing bodies of the UIA, in order of precedence, are:
General Assembly: Composed of delegates from UIA Member Sections as well as Council members.
Council: President, Immediate Past President, Secretary General, Treasurer, a Vice-President from each region and 4 elected members from each of the five regions.
UIA Working Bodies
To fulfil its mission, the UIA operates through Working Bodies, which are divided into Commissions and Work Programmes. Each Commission and Work Programme is led by two co-directors and includes architects from Member Sections.
Commissions
Architectural Education, International Competitions & Awards
Professional Practice, Sustainability
UN 17 SDGs
UNESCO-UIA Validation.
Work Programmes
Architecture and Children
Architecture for All
Architecture, Cities and Territories.
Community Architecture and Human Rights.
Educational and Cultural Spaces.
Heritage and Cultural Identity.
Indigenous Peoples.
Informal Settlements.
Natural and Human Disasters.
Public Health.
Public Spaces.
Social Habitat.
Sports and Leisure.