The Barcelona World Architecture Congress in 10 emblematic works

BarcelonaThe UIA World Architecture Congress 2026 Barcelona will become, between June 28 and July 2, the global epicenter of architectural debate. The congress, titled Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition, will bring together around 10,000 participants and 250 speakers in more than 100 sessions. Here are 10 emblematic works by some of its most anticipated architects and speakers.

Transformation of the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Hospital in Paris into housing

By Lacaton & Vassal

French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have won the sector’s most important awards –the Pritzker and the Mies van der Rohe– with a philosophy based on rigorous economy of means and the power of rehabilitation. In this case, they transform a 1950s hospital into 134 homes, 66 of which are for sale, 33 for social rent, and 35 for rent. To make this possible, they add up to four floors to the existing building. The project, which has the collaboration of their disciple Gaëtan Redelsperger, includes 2,600 m² of commercial space, out of a total of 12,490 m².

Blue Ocean Dome

By Shigeru Ban

A new display of the Japanese Shigeru Ban's talent in innovation with materials and the desire to reduce its environmental impact. This work, built for the Osaka Universal Exposition of 2025, consists of a complex of three domes built with paper tubes, laminated bamboo, and, for the first time in a large structure, carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). "CFRP has been used in aircraft and car bodies, but not yet as a main structure in architecture. Since the structure weighs less than the earth that would need to be excavated for the foundations, we managed to eliminate the need for piles," explains Shigeru Ban. This allowed the building to be installed on a site with low resistance and made it easier to relocate the building. Shigeru Ban, who won the Pritzker Prize in 2014, is also known for emergency buildings in natural disaster contexts with these same materials.

Lin'an History Museum

D'Amateur Architecture Studio

Amateur Architecture Studio is formed by architect Wang Shu, the only Chinese Pritzker Prize winner, and his wife and partner, Lu Wenyu. They are known for how, instead of getting carried away by the wave of China's modernization based on the destruction of historical fabrics, they create contemporary, and at the same time, timeless and rooted architecture. One of the most extreme cases of their vision is the Ningbo Museum of History, built with the remains of the buildings that were there. They have maintained the same idea in one of their most recent works, the Lin'an Museum of History, where they integrated pieces of the farmland of the village where it stands and fragmented the building into different volumes so that it would resemble the houses of a village and not "a large container".

Limbo Museum

From the Limbo Accra studio

The Limbo Museum, in Accra (Ghana), is driven by the Limbo Accra studio, founded by Dominique Petit-Frère and Emil Grip. They are focused on "unlocking the potential of unfinished buildings in West Africa and beyond," experimenting with the repair and transformation of buildings that were left abandoned. The Limbo Museum is located within the skeleton of a brutalist building and has been operating since October 31, 2025, as a creative laboratory for architects, artists, and designers. "We adopt an intuitive and future-ready approach in relation to experience, material, and space," explain Dominique Petit-Frère and Emil Grip.

London Sky Bubble

By Smiljan Radic

The Chilean Smiljan Radic has won the Pritzker Prize 2026 for works that are "at the crossroads between uncertainty, material experimentation and cultural memory," as the jury said. "His buildings appear temporary, unstable or deliberately unfinished, almost about to disappear, and yet they offer a structured, optimistic and discreetly cheerful refuge that embraces vulnerability as an intrinsic condition of lived experience," the jury added. Among his most recent works is the London Sky Bubble, in Tobacco Dock, which in 2022 was the setting for the first fashion show of the Alexander McQueen brand after the covid pandemic: it is an inflatable cloud reminiscent of utopian architectures of the 1960s and 70s. The generator that kept it running was powered by hydrotreated vegetable oil, a renewable alternative to diesel made from fats, food waste, and agricultural residues.

Zaishui Art Museum

By Junya Ishigami

In one of his most well-known statements, Japanese architect Junya Ishigami points out that he wants to create architecture that is like "a new nature." Ishigami is known for his bold vision: "The architecture we have is mainly based on history and past knowledge, even though we use the latest technologies. We must always rethink the meaning of architecture in our current time and its purpose. Anything can become architecture. That's why we must reconsider what architecture is today and temporarily forget the past to recreate new fundamental bases suitable for the present." In the case of the Zaishui Art Museum, in Rizhao (China), it is a kilometer-long walkway that crosses an artificial lake, with the aim of integrating the building into the landscape. In fact, water enters the building. In addition to exhibition halls, the space includes an information center and commercial areas and functions as the iconic entrance to a new district of the city.

Khudi Bari Modular Structures

By Marina Tabassum 

Khudi Bari, "small house" in Bengali, is a modular solution to provide dignified housing for people in situations of forced displacement, and it has been replicated in different locations in Bangladesh as self-built housing. The Khudi Bari is a structure made of bamboo and steel connectors. It is light and, at the same time, resistant. It is designed so that three people can assemble it in just three days with simple tools and dismantle it in a few hours. Deep foundations are not necessary. The dwelling is divided into two levels: a ground floor for social and private spaces, and an upper floor that serves as a bedroom and shelter in case of floods. The roofs are made of corrugated sheet metal, which facilitates transport and maintenance, and the facades can be built with local materials, reinforcing the connection with the environment. For this work, the Bangladeshi Marina Tabassum won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2025.

'The lost waves'

From Cooking Sections

Cooking Sections is a London-based studio formed by Spaniard Daniel Fernández Pascual and Israeli Alon Schwabe. They come from the world of architecture, but their distinctive feature is multidisciplinary environmental research often focused on food. This research allows them to reveal "practices of industrialization and extraction that are transforming the planet". Their work takes on diverse formats, such as the installation they presented at the Centro Botín in Santander last autumn, The Lost Waves. The disappearance of the Mundaka wave was the starting point for reflecting on the ravages of the marine environment. "There are many, many waves threatened with extinction, due to the construction of new ports, the dredging of new channels, and new forms of fishing that increasingly alter the seabed. It is about becoming aware that the surface and the seabed are connected. And that steps must be taken to protect the waves," they warn.

Housing block in Illa Glòries

From a Certain Study

The Barcelona-based firm Cierto Estudio, founded by Marta Benedicto, Ivet Gasol, Carlota de Gispert, Anna Llonch, Lucia Millet, and Clara Vidal, is known for some emblematic works in Barcelona in recent years, such as the Consell de Cent street green axis, and especially for its work in the housing sector, where a block of flats in Illa Glòries stands out. The UIA has recognized it with the first UIA Young Architects award for its contribution to contemporary architectural practice. For the jury, Cierto Estudio embodies "a model of shared authorship that reinforces its commitment to inclusive processes and to a practice based on common values." "The studio stands out for its commitment to architecture as a tool to improve the living conditions of the majority, with special attention to housing. In both public and private commissions, their work reflects a coherent design approach that seeks to improve living conditions while maintaining a careful balance between architectural quality and broader social impact," says the jury. Among those awarded by the UIA this year is the Fetdeterra studio.

Change Milestone

Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation

The Madrid-born architect Andrés Jaque, founder of the Office for Political Innovation and dean of Columbia's architecture school, is one of the five finalists for the Shift Landmark competition, an urban laboratory for innovation and climate adaptation to be built in Rotterdam's new Waterkant district. It is a complex of up to 30,000 m² that will include an immersive experience of 10,000 m², a hotel, a conference center, and gastronomic spaces. The project is starting in Rotterdam because 55% of the Dutch territory is vulnerable to flooding and a large part of the city is below sea level, making it considered a global symbol of resilience. Jaque's project is titled Planetary landmark for the climate age" (Planetary monument of the climate era), and is conceived as "an operational section of the planet of transformation," where there would be immersive experiences capable of activating "new social behaviors".