The History of the UIA World Congress of Architecture and the Cities That Shaped It

Every three years, theInternational Union of Architects' (UIA) World Congress lands in a different city, under a different theme set years in advance. A quick mapping of these host cities reveals a deliberate pattern: throughout the decades, the UIA has purposefully chosen a wide range of venues across all continents, rendering each edition a snapshot of what mattered in that specific place, at that exact moment. The result of this geographic rotation has been a diverse kaleidoscope of conversations, analyzing the profession from countless angles and adapting it to changing times. But 2026 is different; this timethe UIA is repeating a host city for the first time: Barcelona, under the theme "Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition".