Deadline:
June 28, 2026
Program Starts: June 28, 2026
Program Ends: July 02, 2026
Location(s)
Spain
Barcelona
Overview
Our goal is to promote, discuss, create and showcase architecture as a vital tool to achieve the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. We will share sustainable solutions, examine the latest research results and join our efforts to make the 29th UIA World Congress a milestone in the history of what architecture can do to help save the planet.
Barcelona is ONE with architecture. And architecture and urban planning are ONE, in Barcelona. Together they create a dialogue that has become an international benchmark. Barcelona is a city known for its design and creativity, also when it comes to devising architectural solutions and debating them. It did so in 1996 when it was the venue for the 19th Congress of the International Union of Architects (UIA) and hosted federations of professionals from all around the world.
Now, 25 years later, the city is once again bidding as a candidate to hold the 2026 edition with even more experience and updated proposals so as to project architecture, among all of us, towards the only possible future.
Details
Barcelona will become the first city to host the event twice. The institutions working on its organisation consider this an opportunity to rethink and update formats and themes in a global context of change. For this reason, the Congress organiser decided to submit, for the first time in the history of UIA Congresses, the general commissioning of the event to an international selection process via a two-stage competition. The aim of this international competition was to provide an incentive to broaden the horizons of this collective reflection and thus organise a Congress of maximum relevance and interest to the global community of architects.
The winning team, selected as the General Commissioners of the Barcelona Congress, have developed the theme “Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition”, which will analyse the capacity of architecture to transform reality in time.
The theme will branch into six lines of research, curated by both the commissioners and an extensive and international group of invited collaborators; their conclusions will be presented throughout the Congress:
- BECOMING BEYOND-HUMAN: How can we stimulate greater awareness and action to care for human and non-human planetary coexistence?
- BECOMING ATTUNED: What forms of meaning, ethics, and aesthetics can we incorporate into our daily professional practice?
- BECOMING EMBODIED: How can we incorporate our values and desires in the transition from matter to constructive beauty?
- BECOMING INTERDEPENDENT: How can we include conflict, empathy, solidarity, and caring as key factors to improve interpersonal and civic relations?
- BECOMING HYPER-CONSCIOUS: What tools and actions should we harness in order to become hyper-aware of our environment and catalyse change in our way of living?
- BECOMING CIRCULAR: What will territorial production and reproduction look like, taking into account the post-extractivist and proximity policies of circularity?
Opportunity is About
Eligibility
Candidates should be from:
Description of Ideal Candidate
Dates
Deadline: June 28, 2026
Program starts:
June 28, 2026
Program ends:
July 02, 2026
Program Starts: June 28, 2026
Program Ends: July 02, 2026
Cost/funding for participants
Youth Committee
The UIA 2026 World Congress in Barcelona aims to involve record numbers of students and young professionals. We want this congress to be a forum where everyone has a voice, and where the global youth can meet, talk, generate ideas and develop novel solutions to the challenges we all face.
Un-save Opportunity
Internships, scholarships, student conferences and competitions.
