The workshop brought together 180 international students and young architects from 18 to 27 June, led by 12 pioneering emerging practices, each investigating a distinct research project on architecture and urbanism in Barcelona, transforming the Three Chimneys of Sant Adrià del Besòs into a space for hands-on studio work, site visits and open discussions.
On 24 June, TEN, Common Accounts, Design Earth and Bangkok Tokyo Architecture opened the series, exploring themes ranging from socially driven architecture and the body’s relationship to space to speculative projects that make the climate crisis visible and open-ended structures that ask who architecture is really for.
The second evening, on 25 June, featured Ibiye Camp, Nicolas Dorval-Bory Architectes, BeAr and Nuno Melo Sousa — practices whose work moves across postcolonial conditions and technology, building and teaching, and an intimate approach rooted in drawing and the immediacy of making.
The third and final evening, on 26 June, opened with the presentation of the book Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition by the Congress curatorial team, followed by Plan Común, Mio Tsuneyama and Fuminori Nousaku, Simulaa, and Assemble + Common Treasures — practices working across collective space, multispecies coexistence, environmental limits and bringing architectural design to rural communities largely excluded from it.
All three evenings took place at the Three Chimneys of Sant Adrià del Besòs and were free and open to the public. The results of the Workshop are part of the Central Exhibition Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition, open the public with free access from 3 to 19 July, Thursday to Sunday, 12:00–21:00.
The UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona presented the Workshop Leaders’ Open Talks in the run-up to the Congress days. The twelve emerging practices leading the International Emerging Workshop shared their own work in a series of talks open to the public that are part of the free activities through which the Congress opened its debates to the general public.