Paris/Barcelona (EFE).- Unesco and the International Union of Architects have formalized this Monday in Copenhagen the selection of Barcelona as the world capital of architecture in 2026, an initiative that seeks to highlight the role of architecture and urbanism in the culture and identity of cities, as well as their sustainable development.
“Barcelona will continue to build on the achievements of Copenhagen, transmitting how architecture and culture can face current challenges for the global public benefit and future generations,” said the director of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, in a speech at the capital of Denmark on the occasion of the UIA World Congress of Architects.
As the World Capital of Architecture, Barcelona will host a series of events throughout 2026 that will take place in cooperation with the Higher Council of Spanish Architects’ Associations (CSCAE) and the Official Association of Architects of Catalonia (COAC).
An extensive program of events and activities
The Barcelona City Council will also “facilitate an extensive program of events, exhibitions, activities and companies that clearly demonstrate and highlight the value and importance of the contribution of architecture and urban design to the sustainable development of the city,” the company said in a statement. Unesco, which has its headquarters in Paris.
This will promote, according to the United Nations agency for Education, Science and Culture, “public learning opportunities” such as workshops, conferences, festivals and public visits focused on discovering “the identity and the unique architectural and urban heritage of the city, as a framework for the coexistence of diverse communities with different needs”.
Unesco and the UIA designate Barcelona as the world capital of architecture 2026
Barcelona was designated on the recommendation of a joint committee of Unesco and the UIA for the world capital of architecture, chaired by the eminent French architect Dominique Perrault.
The official designation of Barcelona as the world capital of architecture in 2026 was practically a mere formality after its candidacy prevailed over that of Beijing at the UIA General Assembly held in July 2021 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
In Copenhagen, the dean of the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC), Guillem Costa Calsamiglia, has presented the graphic image of the world congress as well as the competition for the commissioning.
“In a context of climate, energy and post-pandemic crises, the competition for the curatorship that will give conceptual shape to the Architecture Congress is presented as an opportunity to rethink and update formats and themes of what architecture congresses should be like”, Costa pointed out. .
The curating of the event will come out of an international selection process, through a two-round contest, which will be resolved in September and December, with the aim that the curating team begins its work in January 2024.
The competition process for the curator seeks, according to Costa, to promote a congress that not only generates the maximum relevance and interest for the global community of architects, but also that from its conclusions “knowledge and practices of real impact on the day to day of people and the future of the planet”.
The driving administrations, together with a committee of experts of recognized prestige, will choose the team of curators that may be multidisciplinary, as long as the leadership is held by an architect.
Practica, the team that will be in charge of the graphic proposal of the Congress
Through a state contest organized by the Association of Art Directors and Graphic Designers (ADG-FAD), the graphic proposal for the Congress prepared by the Practica team, based in Barcelona and New York, has managed to be selected.
It is about “a powerful and multifaceted identity, which addresses both the Western world and the Arab world, Ibero-American and the global south, based on the premise that we have shared global challenges”.
The jury, made up of representatives of the driving administrations and the ADG, has recognized that it is an image that reflects the transformative capacity of architecture through action.
With the celebration of the Congress in 2026, Barcelona will become the first city to host this milestone twice, having already hosted the 19th UIA World Congress in 1996, four years after the Olympic Games, at the moment of maximum interest international for the so-called “Barcelona model”, the boom in local design and at the beginning of the tourist explosion in the city.