World-Architects Opens the Doors to Ten Barcelona Studios

Conceived and organized by World-Architects in collaboration with Labóh and L35, the Architecture Studio Sessions initiative offers a series of events inviting ten architecture studios in Barcelona to literally open their doors so they can share their way of working, their thinking, and their spaces. Each session combines a presentation by the host studio, a guided tour of its offices, and a social gathering accompanied by music—with playlists and DJ sessions selected by the architects themselves—creating a hybrid format between a professional event and a cultural experience. The curators of the initiative are Gaia Pellegrini, Miriam Giordano, and John Hill, and it is sponsored by Laufen, Roca, and Simon.

World-Architects curator and editor-in-chief John Hill recalls a statement by John Cage, “the arts are not isolated, but engage in dialogue with each other,” that echoes the historical relationship between music and architecture, the latter sometimes described as “frozen music.” “The relationship between these two arts should find unique expression in Architecture Studio Sessions,” Hill continues, “where architects will become de facto DJs for the night. Parties in architecture studios can be a lot of fun.” 

In the words of Miriam Giordano, curator and director of the Labóh communications agency, “architecture plays a crucial role in redefining the future of our cities and living environments by addressing the major challenges we face. It is therefore essential that society better understands the scope of the architectural profession. Opening architecture studios to the public is a modest but significant gesture to promote this awareness.”

“We want to show a small sample of all the different faces of architecture and everything we can do as architects,” concludes architect Gaia Pellegrini, curator and communications manager at the L35 studio.

In 2026, Barcelona will be the global epicenter of architectural debate. From June 28 to July 2, it will host the UIA World Architecture Congress, which will be held under the slogan Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition. To mark the congress, the Catalan capital will be the UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture for the entire year, with an extensive program of activities taking place throughout the city. The Architecture Studio Sessions program will run throughout the year, with monthly events between February and December as part of the capital's official calendar.

Far from being conceived as a series of lectures, Architecture Studio Sessions seeks to establish more direct contact between architects, professionals in the sector, and interested members of the public, fostering a relaxed atmosphere in which each workspace becomes a stage, and music acts as a social catalyst with the aim of bringing architecture closer to the general public. The selection of participating studios is based on criteria of diversity in scale, approach, and trajectory: from large international firms to more experimental studios. The 2026 series thus paints a heterogeneous picture of some of the many high-quality architectural practices in the city.

The series opens on February 25 at the Barcelona studio of the renowned BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, located on Ronda de Sant Pere. Housed in a historic building in the Eixample district that was completely transformed in 2023, the studio occupies two floors where exposed brick walls, vaults, and cast iron columns coexist with a contemporary intervention marked by a large metal staircase and mosaic flooring designed with Huguet Mallorca. It is a space that reflects the combination of craftsmanship, technology, and global ambition that characterizes BIG, which is active in cutting-edge architecture and urban planning projects around the world.

On March 4, the second session will take place at the space shared by Mariona Benedito and Bayona Valero in Sarrià–Sant Gervasi. More than a conventional studio, it is a platform that brings together different initiatives related to architecture, urban planning, and reflections on the city. In this collaborative environment—which hosts projects such as the Cities Connection Project, La Invisible, and Benito Hub—Benedito's independent and experimental practice intersects with Bayona Valero's solid track record in social housing, public facilities, and urban projects.

On April 15, the third session moves to b720 Arquitectos, one of the big names in architecture and urban planning in Spain. Their office on Calle Calvet, in Sant Gervasi, is organized around a long entrance hall dominated by a large bookcase and a six-and-a-half-meter wooden table, which will serve as the focal point of the event. Amid white walls and exposed concrete columns, b720 will present its portfolio, which ranges from such icons as the Encants Market and the Glòries Tower to large-scale infrastructure projects such as La Sagrera station.

On May 6, L35 Architects will welcome attendees to its headquarters on the top two floors and penthouse of a corner building on Avenida Diagonal. With an international track record spanning almost six decades and projects ranging from stadiums, such as the Santiago Bernabéu, to large urban developments, L35 will hold the session in its penthouse, a workspace connected to an open terrace overlooking Rambla de Catalunya and, in the distance, the sea.

On June 3, it will be Batlleiroig's turn at its campus in Esplugues de Llobregat. There, several buildings—from the historic Casa Moratiel by Josep Maria Sostres to the recent office building—form a complex that embodies the studio's commitment to landscape, nature, and sustainability. With nearly 200 professionals and more than four decades of experience, Batlleiroig will show how its architecture interacts with the environment and the climate emergency, contributing to the city's sustainable development.

The July session will be held on the 8th at External Reference, the studio run by Carmelo Zappulla in a modernist building in the Eixample district. Its two-story space combines modernist mosaic floors and artistic stained glass windows with a contemporary laboratory for design, digital manufacturing, and prototyping. This blend of heritage and technology reflects a practice focused on creating spatial experiences in fields ranging from urban planning to retail and hospitality.

After the summer, on September 16, the young firm h3o Architects will open its studio on Calle Verdi, in Gràcia. The space, built around a garden that connects to a neighboring art gallery, serves as a workplace and research center for a team that explores issues such as climate change, social responsibility, and the relationship between humans and non-humans. The session is conceived here as a natural extension of that spirit of dialogue between architecture, nature, and the city.

On October 7, the event will take place at the headquarters of Benedetta Tagliabue - EMBT and the Enric Miralles Foundation, which houses the most complete archive of Miralles's work. Located in the former studio shared by Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue on Passatge de la Pau, the space retains the experimental and creative character of the office and now functions as a cultural platform, making it a particularly significant setting for an initiative that seeks to link practice, memory, and contemporary thought.

On November 7, GCA Architects will welcome the public to its headquarters in the former Reina Victoria Cinema in the Eixample district. Transformed in the 1990s into a large open-plan space lit by skylights, the studio combines an open workspace, library, and pieces of design and art that underscore a conception of architecture in constant dialogue with culture and the city. GCA's track record, marked by projects such as the Hotel Arts and the Torres Puig, brings a mature and cross-disciplinary vision to the field.

The series will close on December 2 at LAMÁQUINA, in an industrial warehouse in Sant Martí dedicated to large-scale 3D printing. Here, among manufacturing robots and life-size prototypes, architecture is presented as a productive and technological process, linked to sustainability and the industrialization of construction. The working environment, halfway between a factory and a laboratory, offers an eloquent image of where design and construction methods may be headed.