Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Barcelona City Council, the Government of Catalonia, the Ministry for Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, the Higher Council of Architects’ Associations of Spain and the Architects’ Association of Catalonia are working to turn the city into the global epicentre for architecture from now to beyond 2026, when Barcelona will take on the world capital status by hosting the International Union of Architects Congress.

So far, a decision has reached for the programme to be based around architectural and urban quality, the change to the urban model currently under way and the city’s architectural ecosystem. The organisational process for the city’s role as the capital is also being set out and will adopt a collective and cooperative approach, with a hundred institutions and organisations taking part.

Leading festival for architecture

Until then, Architecture Week is to cast its vision towards the city’s capital role and evolve into the Festival d’Arquitectura de Barcelona – Architecture Fest BCN. New aspects to the event include reflection and debate on developments in architecture on a local, national and international scale, getting other sectors such as culture and ecology to engage with the festival and inviting a guest city every year to exchange knowledge and experience on the new challenges for architecture and urban planning

In July, Barcelona was officially named as the UIA-UNESCO World Capital of Architecture for 2026, ahead of the Chinese city of Beijing.