Barcelona will be the first city to host the International Union of Architects (UIA) World Architecture Congress for the second time, from June 28 to July 2, 2026. It is also unprecedented that the issues to be addressed were proposed by a team of architects emerging from an international competition. These are Pau Bajet, Mariona Benedito, Maria Giramé, Tomeu Ramis, Pau Sarquella, Carmen Torres, and José Zabala, and this Monday they have provided new details on how they will unfold their project, titled Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition: its main venues will be Les Tres Xemeneies in Sant Adrià de Besòs and the Disseny Hub Barcelona (DHub). Likewise, emblematic city locations will also host public events of the congress, such as Montjuïc Castle, which will host the closing ceremony; the Moll de la Marina and the Sagrada Família, where the UIA awards will be presented. It has also been announced that the curators have commissioned 12 research projects, from teams including Atelier Bow-Wow, Colectivo C733, Anna Puigjaner, de Vylder Vinck, and Forensic Architecture. Another of these investigations is Water Parliaments, the proposal by Eva Franch and the TAKK studio that will represent Catalonia at the next Venice Architecture Biennale.The decision to locate the headquarters at Les Tres Xemeneies in Sant Adrià de Besòs and the Barcelona Design Hub (DHub) is well thought out: for the curators, this coastal strip is "of high complexity" because "the essential infrastructures for the metropolis" are found there, and because this area must assume "some of the contemporary challenges of global interest, such as vulnerability to climate change, mass tourism, and migratory fluctuations." Thus, the curators want to highlight that the World Congress "participates in the geopolitical framework represented by the Mediterranean Sea, and wants to show Barcelona as a Mediterranean city in constant transformation, which crystallizes the idea of the city's own construction over time“."The year 2026 represents a relevant milestone for Barcelona, as for a few days it will host the UIA Congress, but also because it has been designated by UNESCO as the World Capital of Architecture", states architect Maria Giramé. On the other hand, regarding the use of time in architecture to which "Becoming" refers, Giramé explains that it consists of "always working from pre-existences, whether they are physical landscapes, cultures, histories or memories of a place, to transform them carefully, taking into account their richness and complexity".