The CCIB prepares as a key stage for the UIA 2026 World Congress of Architects

Barcelona is preparing to host, from 28 June to 2 July, the UIA 2026 World Congress of Architects, gathering more than 10,000 professionals from over 130 countries, with the Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB), managed by Fira de Barcelona, as one of its main venues alongside the Tres Xemeneies in Sant Adrià de Besòs and the Disseny Hub. The CCIB, devoting 10,393 m² to the event and most of its conference rooms, will host the plenary and parallel sessions, the meetings of the International Union of Architects' statutory bodies and working groups, and the official closing ceremony. Organised by the UIA, Spain's CSCAE architects' council and the Catalan architects' college COAC under the motto 'Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition', the congress will feature around a hundred sessions structured along six themes: ecology, circular economy, materials, urban policies, data and culture. Participants include Lacaton & Vassal, Shigeru Ban, Amateur Architecture Studio, Architecten Jan de Vylder Inge Vinck and Chilean architect Smiljan Radić, 2026 Pritzker Prize laureate. The event falls within Barcelona's designation as UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture 2026 and makes it the first city in the world to host the congress twice, thirty years after the 1996 edition. The CCIB itself — designed by Josep Lluís Mateo with the Auditori Fòrum by Herzog & de Meuron — is a landmark of contemporary architecture on Barcelona's seafront.