Barcelona hosts World Congress of Architects with 10,000 visitors from all over the world expected

For the first time in thirty years, the World Congress of Architects is back in Barcelona, with an expected 10,000 visitors from all over the world expected over the four days of conference at the Convention Centre (CCIB).

Under the motto 'Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition', the international meeting will address central issues such as the climate emergency, the housing crisis, the sustainability and circularity of materials, and the evolution of public space on a small and large scale.

Speaking to the Catalan News Agency, one of the curators, Pau Sarquella, celebrates that "rarely has it happened that such a high-level program of speakers has been brought together to debate the future of a planet in transition."

The congress is part of the programme for Barcelona's nomination as the World Capital of Architecture for 2026.

Throughout the week, some 10,000 professionals, students, and institutional leaders from over 130 countries will visit the congress, running from Monday until Thursday.

Organized by the International Union of Architects, the Superior Council of the Colleges of Architects of Spain and the College of Architects of Catalonia, the curators are the architects Pau Sarquella, Pau Bajet, Mariona Benedito, Maria Giramé, Tomeu Ramis, and Carmen Torres.

More than 250 international speakers will take to the stages of the CCIB in more than 40 plenary sessions, debates, open forums, workshops, research presentations and award ceremonies.

Among the participants are studios Lacaton & Vassal, Shigeru Ban, Amateur Architecture Studio, and Architecten Jan de Vylder Inge Vinck, as well as the Chilean architect Smiljan Radić, Pritzker Prize 2026 and head of the team designing the future Multifunctional Palace of the Montjuïc fairgrounds.

In addition to the CCIB, the Tres Xemeneies will be the venue for the central exhibition, the afternoon meetings of the Open Forum, and the festive events, while the Dhub, ​​free for the public, will offer talks, debates, and activities linked to some of the most relevant architecture colleges, institutions and associations in the world.

Second edition 30 years on

This is the second edition of the World Congress of Architects, which is held every three years, to be held in Barcelona.

The first time was in 1996, and curator Sarquella notes that, for this edition, the world faces very different challenges compared with three decades earlier.

"In 1996 there were some architects who were like 'stars'. It was a time shortly before the Guggenheim was inaugurated and all the cities wanted to have monumental buildings with exaggerated shapes, to put them on the map," Sarquella recalls. "Architecture now is much more collective, much more designed for citizens, which wants to improve the living conditions of cities and the planet."