From Jujol to innovations in wood: the highlights of the world capital of architecture

BarcelonaBarcelona City Council begins to reveal the activities of Barcelona will be declared World Capital of Architecture in 2026For ten months, between the days of Saint Eulalia and Saint Lucia, Barcelona will be the "world epicenter of architecture" with more than 200 proposals and some 1,500 activities, including around fifty exhibitions, 268 routes and guided tours, and 85 events in the neighborhood and Buhigas. "We want everyone to put on their architect's glasses to look around and imagine a city where rights such as housing are guaranteed, based on sustainable mobility, and with infrastructure adapted to the new climate reality," said Collboni. The mayor also highlighted how the events will highlight areas of Barcelona undergoing rapid transformation by 2035, including the station and the Sagrera neighborhood, Montjuïc Mountain, and the coastline, from the Port of Barcelona to the Fòrum.

For Buhigas, the common thread of the program is the "power" that architecture and urban planning have as transformative public policy. "This is a collective project that we are very excited about and that is a call to honor the professionals who accompany the urban change of the city," he emphasized.

The official starting gun will be on February 12, the day of Santa Eulàlia, with a large institutional event and a series of events in the city's ten districts. The closing ceremony will take place on December 13. The organizers of the capital's status, which has a budget of more than 11 million euros, want it to leave a physical legacy, which will take the form of a large model of Barcelona and the renovation of a dozen party walls.

Major exhibitions of Jujol and the master of Cabestany

The MNAC will host two of the highlights of the capital's exhibitions: a major exhibition on Josep Maria Jujol curated by Perejaume and another on the master of Cabestany and the lost Romanesque portal of the Sant Pere de Rodes monastery, a project by Professor Manuel Castiñeiras that the museum announced a few years ago.

Among the exhibitions, the former headquarters of the Gustavo Gili publishing house will host Barcelona: intense, diverse and complex, on the dynamism of the city based on the relationships between the population and the urban fabric; Nicolau Rubió and Tudurí. Architecture, landscape, controversies will be seen at the Museum of Ethnography and World Cultures, and Sanity and Passion: 150 Years of Catalan Architecture, on the best of Catalan architecture since the founding of the School of Architecture in 1875, will be held at the DHub. You can also see Award-winning architecture. 125 years of the Architecture Awards, a retrospective of the FAD awards, at the Barcelona History Museum; Picasso. The architect,at the Picasso Museum; an exhibition on Responses to the major challenges of metropolitan public space and, at the Maritime Museum, another exhibition on The construction of the metropolitan territory (1859-2023).

Regarding the routes and guided tours, the 48h Open House Barcelona association is planning three fifteen-day events in Nou Barris, Sants-Montjuïc, and Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, to explore their architectural and social heritage. The routes will also cover wooden architecture and the transformation of the headquarters of the College of Technical Architects of Catalonia. Among the conferences, the series stands out. Brand new, a series of twelve conferences by architects under 40 years old from the different branches of the College of Architects of Catalonia, with the aim of giving visibility to new generations of professionals.

Barcelona takes over from Copenhagen as world capital. This celebration is promoted by Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat (Catalan Government), the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, and has the participation of some 170 entities. In parallel, the city will host a new edition of the World Congress of the International Union of Architects from June 28 to July 2. The Generalitat (Catalan Government) will also organize the events commemorating the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death.