New construction is growing in Catalonia, but not to provide housing. In the first six months of the year, the College of Architects of Catalonia (Coac) has issued permits to build or extensively renovate 2.41 million square meters in Catalonia, a 13.46% increase compared to the same period last year. However, although housing is what the ongoing constructions will be predominantly for (almost 1.6 million m², 66% of the total), the increase in actions has been concentrated in other uses – which have grown by 54.24% compared to 2025 – while it has stagnated for housing – an area where it has increased by 0.54%–. In fact, architects have approved 2.59% fewer new construction and renovation homes, down to 7,897: that is, Catalonia is making fewer apartments available than a year ago, but, on the one hand, they are larger, and, on the other hand, renovations are keeping the surface area with ongoing actions for housing stable.

The last weeks of the school year have been intense for the first-year ESO students at Institut Teresa Pàmies (Barcelona), who have managed to complete the co-creation project of a public-use plot of land on which they had been working all year. They did so within the framework of the workshop Architecture and senses, a plot for everyone, one of the 400 architecture workshops that 130 architects have taught in 25 educational centers in the province of Barcelona between May and June, coinciding with Architecture Week. Although this year the workshops are part of the program for Barcelona 2026, World Capital of Architecture, the initiative is not new, as the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC) has been organizing it since 2019. Over these eight years, more than 55,000 primary, secondary, and high school students from more than 200 educational centers have participated.

New construction single-family homes, renovations and refurbishments in small towns in Empordà, near the Costa Brava. Mostly second homes for families from Barcelona. In keeping with the surroundings and made with local materials. This would be the most representative example of the award-winning architecture currently being produced in the Girona region. This is determined by the projects selected in the latest editions of the Girona Region Architecture Awards, organized by the Girona delegation of the Architects' Association of Catalonia (COAC).

Architecture is much more than plans. It's a way of designing life. When we enter someone's home, we also enter their privacy. It's no surprise that there is interest in learning about the interiors of famous—but also curious—buildings that surround us. Aware of this interest among citizens, the Girona branch of the Official College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC) is expanding its public tours and visits—not just for professionals—to award-winning buildings and houses this fall. In total, it has promoted more than 40 activities throughout the district, many of which involve guided tours by the architects who have built award-winning houses. We review five excuses to explore their interiors.

Although construction in the Girona region has been recording its best figures for two consecutive years since the bursting of the real estate bubble in 2008, the fact is that this growth continues to be sustained in the renovation and new construction of single-family homes. In many cases, this growth is outside the cities: either because many families have been forced out of the city by rising prices or because the construction of second homes has not ceased.