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Barcelona inaugurates the World Capital of Architecture with an institutional event at the Casa de l'Arquitectura
UNESCO and the UIA are promoting a year of urban reflection with more than 1,500 activities and a program that displays architecture throughout all districts and the territory.
Barcelona has begun its journey as World Capital of Architecture 2026, a distinction awarded by UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA) on the occasion of the World Congress of Architects, which is being held in the city from June 28 to July 2, 2026.
The institutional launch of the project was held at the Casa de l'Arquitectura de Barcelona, located in the former headquarters of the Gustavo Gili publishing house, in an event that brought together the main driving institutions. The Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni; the Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Sílvia Paneque; and the Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Agenda, David Lucas Parrón, participated. All three highlighted the potential of the project to strengthen the link between architecture, city and citizenship, as well as to project Barcelona internationally and leave a lasting legacy beyond 2026.
Until December 13, 2026, Barcelona is transformed into a great urban and cultural laboratory. For ten months, the city becomes the epicenter of the international architectural debate with a multidisciplinary program promoted by more than 170 entities.
The program includes more than 1,500 activities distributed across the city's ten districts: exhibitions, workshops, debates, conferences, routes and guided tours, among many other proposals. The goal is to invite citizens to rediscover the city with a new look and reflect on how urban space is lived, inhabited and constructed.
One of the central axes of Barcelona 2026 is its territorial deployment. Each month, a different district becomes the protagonist of the programming, with specific activities that highlight its architectural, social and urban identity.
This decentralization allows us to read the city from its diversity of realities and urban fabrics, turning each neighborhood into a space for reflection and experimentation.
The first protagonist districts were the Eixample, with the Casa de l'Arquitectura as its main headquarters and the Fort Pienc Civic Center and Library as a reference space, and Les Corts, with the Joan Oliver “Pere Quart” Civic Center.
This April it is the turn of Sants-Montjuïc , which hosts the programming of the project with the Lleialtat Santsenca as its central space. It is a community management facility deeply linked to the history of the Sants neighborhood, which thus becomes a meeting point for the district's activities within the capital.
The World Capital of Architecture also extends beyond the city limits. Several municipalities, professional associations, architecture schools and cultural entities from across Catalonia participate with their own initiatives that broaden the debate on architecture, landscape and urban planning.
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