'A Wicked Laboratory' – International Emerging Workshop at UIA2026BCN
As part of the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona, the Catalan capital will host the International Emerging Workshop, a creative laboratory for students and young professionals led by twelve leading emerging architecture studios, which will take place one week before the Congress.
A selection of 180 students and recent graduates in architecture and related disciplines from around the world (with degrees obtained since 2020) will gather at Las Tres Chimeneas (The Three Chimneys) in Sant Adrià de Besòs, an iconic space in the Barcelona metropolitan area, promoting intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange. Organized into twelve groups, participants will collaborate in a workshop centered on the theme Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition, which will be developed around “six themes for rethinking architecture”: Becoming More-than-human, Becoming Embodied, Becoming Attuned, Becoming Interdependent, Becoming Hyper-conscious, Becoming Circular.
Each group will be led by Workshop Leaders, chosen by the Congress curators from among the most promising emerging architecture studios, who will explore the different “Becomings” from their practice, proposing scenarios that combine habitable ecologies, material circularity, constructive tactics, collective dynamics, critical technologies, and everyday landscapes.
Portraits of the Workshop Leaders, courtesy of UIA2026BCN.
Becoming More-Than-Human
– Simulaa (Australia) with ‘Additions and Adaptations’
– Design Earth (Lebanon/Algeria) with ‘Brava!’
Becoming Circular
– Mio Tsuneyama & Fuminori Nousaku (Japan) with ‘Making Knots, Weaving Shed’
– Nicolas Dorval-Bory Architectes (France) with ‘The coolest summer of the rest of our lives’
Becoming Embodied
– Nuno Melo Sousa (Portugal) with ‘One, two, three, more, many tables’
– TEN Studio (Serbia/Switzerland) with ‘Try again. Fail again. Fail better’
Becoming Interdependent
– Assemble (UK) with ‘Merchants & Warriors’
– Plan Común (Chile/France) with ‘In between Commons BCN’
Becoming Hyper-Conscious
– Common Accounts (Spain/Canada) with ‘Parade!’
– Ibiye Camp (Nigeria/UK) with ‘Revised Cartographies’
Becoming Attuned
– Bear (Spain) with ‘Elements of dissidence’
– Bangkok Tokyo Architecture (Thailand/Japan) with ‘Collective Completions’
Young people who wish to participate in the initiative will have until January 10, 2026, to send their portfolios to the Congress organizers. On the 31st of the same month, the names of those selected to begin the workshops on June 19 will be announced. The work done in the workshops will be presented on June 27, just before the start of the Congress, which will be held from June 28 to July 2.