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Gaudí as a bridge between cultures with architectural dialogue between Catalonia and China at COAC
A day of contemporary reflection on Gaudí's legacy within the framework of the Gaudí Year.
The Year of Gaudí continues to articulate an intense program of activities, meetings and conferences dedicated to revisiting and projecting the architect's work. In this context, on Friday, July 3, the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC), across the Barcelona and Girona regions, will host a new edition of the (Entorn a) Gaudí talk series, promoted by MIAS Architects —directed by architect and AIA Honorary Fellow Josep Miàs— and Dr. María José Masnou, architect and researcher and former vice-president of the China Chair.
The session, which will take place in the COAC auditorium, is intended as a space for meeting and exchange between Catalonia and China around the figure and legacy of Antoni Gaudí. Beyond the academic debate, the conference aims to establish a framework for cultural and professional connection between two distant architectural contexts, and is symbolically part of the dialogue between Barcelona 2026 and Beijing 2029, cities designated as the World Capital of Architecture by the UIA. The aim is to strengthen international relations and promote the circulation of knowledge in the field of contemporary architecture.
The event will open with a welcome from Sandra Bestraten, dean of the COAC, who will also present the interactive tool Gaudí Constellation , a proposal that allows us to visually trace the relationships between Gaudí and his collaborators over time, providing an interpretive framework for the session.
Next, Iñigo Ugalde, director of the School of Architecture at UIC Barcelona; Ricard Planas, founder and CEO of bonart; and Josep Miàs, director of MIAS Architects, will speak, introducing different perspectives on the validity and contemporary interpretation of Gaudí's legacy.
The international block will consist of three prominent figures in Chinese architecture: Liu Yulong, president of the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University Co., Ltd.; Wang Jian, director general of the Architectural Design & Research Institute of Zhejiang University; and Liu Heng, Deputy Chief Architect of China Architectural Design & Research Group. His interventions will offer a reading on how Gaudí's work has been perceived, studied and reinterpreted in the Chinese architectural context.
The day will conclude with a round table moderated by Kevin Zhang, from the Beijing Institute of Architects (BIA), together with Josep Miàs and María José Masnou. The three international speakers and the artists Jordi Barbany and Mercè Riba will participate. This debate space aims to delve deeper into the dialogue between architectural traditions and the reading of Gaudí as a shared reference, capable of articulating contemporary conversations between different cultures and disciplines.
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