World Congress Becoming.

of Architects. Architectures for

Barcelona. UIA 2026. a planet in transition.

Call for
Participants
Terms and Conditions
 World Congress Becoming. From 28 June
of Architects. Architectures for to 2 July.
Barcelona. UIA 2026. a planet in transition.

Table of Contents

1. UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona – Purpose of the Call

2. Lines of Research covered by the Call for Participants
3. Organizers of the call
4. Who can participate?
5. Contributions: submission formats
5.1. Critical design
5.2. Critical essay
5.3. Critical image
6. Presentation of proposals
7. Congress participation formats
8. Evaluation criteria
9. Evaluation process
10. Committees and Expert Panels
11. Indexation and dissemination
12. Calendar
13. Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights
14. Data protection
Information and Queries

Participation in the Call for Participants implies

full acceptance of its rules.

Convened Organised by Funded by public administrations

 World Congress Becoming. From 28 June
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Barcelona. UIA 2026. a planet in transition.

Terms and Conditions

1. UIA World Congress The purpose of this Call for Participants is to invite contributions to the UIA World
of Architects Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona, titled “Becoming. Architectures for a planet
2026 Barcelona in transition”. The congress seeks to explore innovative perspectives, interdisciplinary
Purpose of the Call approaches, and transformative ideas that address contemporary challenges. Together,
we aim to identify the most pertinent questions, practices, methods, and modes of
research and development; informing the urgently needed transformations of our
habitats to enable sustainable, equitable and inclusive futures.

The Topic of Becoming

Becoming explores spatial practices that foster the appropriation and transformation
of our inhabited environments —both human and more-than-human, individual and
collective— by investigating the potential of time as a design tool. Rejecting the notion
of tabula rasa, it is rooted in a deep awareness of pre-existing physical and cultural
landscapes, curating transitions through material, political, ecological, and poetic
interrelations. In an effort to move beyond the depletion of capitalist-driven paradigms,
Becoming poses challenges that suggest alternative prospects: six thematic research
lines frame these explorations, inviting open-ended, intersecting investigations into
what it means to design for a world in transition.

With this call for participants, the Congress aims to bring together knowledge across re-
search, practice and education to provoke new perspectives and new alliances, reshap-
ing architectural thinking and action.

Collage of digitally
manipulated images by
Judit Musachs and Pol Pérez
selected by the curatorial team.

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2. Research lines Becoming explores the transformation of the existing reality, addressing the relationship
covered by the Call between the urgency of contemporary challenges and a long-term perspective that
unfolds through six thematic research lines: Becoming More-than-human, Becoming
Attuned, Becoming Embodied, Becoming Interdependent, Becoming Hyper-conscious,
Becoming Circular.

The call invites relevant research and knowledge, that critically explores the diverse
ways in which architecture connects to the six thematic research lines. Submissions
must, therefore, address at least one of them:

Becoming More-than-human
How can architecture embrace ecological coexistence?

Becoming Attuned
What forms of meaning and poetics can we engage with our everyday practice?

Becoming Embodied
How can technologies and values be embedded in the transitions from matter
to construction?

Becoming Interdependent
How can we design politics of space that activate interpersonal relationships?

Becoming Hyper-conscious
What actions can emerge from a deeper awareness of global and local interplays?

Becoming Circular
Within post-extractivist proximity policies, which cycles can be spatially produced?

This Conceptual Framework has been further developed in a separate document that
can be downloaded from the website www.uia2026bcn.org and from this link: https://
uia2026bcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/uia2026bcn_abstract.pdf

3. Organisers This call for participants is organized by CSCAE (Higher Council of Professional Associa-
of the Call tions of Architects of Spain) and COAC (The Architects’ Association of Catalonia).

4. Who can participate? This call is aimed at architects, landscape architects, urbanists, designers, engineers,
researchers, photographers, filmmakers, artists and researches in social sciences and
humanities —transdiciplinary approaches related to spatial practice.

5. Contributions: Diverse experiences and knowledge are essential to articulate the particular agency
Three submission of architecture in relation to “Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition”.
formats To expand the possibility of transdisciplinary knowledge exchange and include voices
that are not commonly part of academic and professional discourse, we invite submis-
sions in three different formats: Critical design, Critical essay and Critical image.

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5.1. Critical design

Submissions in this format include design projects, industrial design concepts, design
prototypes or explorations of design methodologies. These could range from concep-
tual designs to practical solutions, as well as innovative approaches within the design
field, built or unbuilt.

Material to submit:
• Title (max. 10 words)
• Headline (max. 40-50 words): A summary phrase that captures the main qualities.
• Abstract (max. 200 words): An outline of the project and its main achievements, meth-
odology, and relevant findings or conclusions.
• Adscription to a Becoming (max. 200 words): A statement explaining how the proposal
aligns with the Becoming vision in relation to one of the six research lines of the congress.
• 2 horizontal digital A3 (in one singular PDF): each design must be presented on two
horizontal digital A3 panels. These panels must include all the necessary documentation
to ensure a proper understanding of the work: floor plans, elevations, sections, con-
struction details, images, diagrams, etc.
• Links to related online information (max. 3 links).
• 10 selected images minimum resolution of 300 dpi and maximum size per image 2MB,
JPG or PNG format.

The panels must include, all at the top, the full name of the project, the location (city,
country). The font to be used for all text should be exclusively Arial 11. The maximum size
of the PDF file is 10 MB.

5.2. Critical essay

Submissions in this format include original written works such as essays, academic
articles, or research papers. Proposals should focus on critical analyses, theoretical
discussions, written interviews, or research findings related to the field of design and
spatial practice, maintaining a connection to the themes of the congress.

The critical essay submission is organized into two phases: the first phase involves sub-
mitting a proposal outlining the topic, argument, and methodology; the second phase
requires submission of the complete, fully developed essay, including bibliography.

First phase: Essay proposal.

Material to submit:
• Title (max. 10 words)
• Headline (max. 40-50 words): A summary phrase that captures the main argument.
• Adscription to a Becoming (max. 200 words): A statement explaining how the proposal
aligns with the Becoming vision in relation to one of the six research lines of the congress.
• Summary of the essay (max. 800 words): A detailed overview outlining the argument,
methodology, and key findings or conclusions. The summary should be a maximum of 4
A4 pages (vertical orientation) in PDF format, including images if relevant.

Second phase: Complete essay.

Material to submit:
• Title (max. 10 words) Must be the same as in First Phase.
5 • Abstract (max. 150 words): A single paragraph summarising the aims, methods, find-
 World Congress Becoming. From 28 June
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Barcelona. UIA 2026. a planet in transition.

ings, and conclusions of the essay.

• 4-6 keywords: A list of key terms in lower-case, separated by commas.
• Adscription to a Becoming (max. 200 words): A statement explaining how the proposal
aligns with the Becoming vision in relation to one of the six research lines of the congress.
• Essay (max. 3,000 words): An original text contributing to the existing body of knowl-
edge. The essay should develop a clear argument in accordance to its approach to
spatial practice. It must be structured within a maximum of 15 A4 pages (vertical orien-
tation), including images, credits, citations, and bibliography. The word count of 3,000-
word limit applies to the main body of the text, excluding citations and bibliography.
References and citations should be formatted according to APA Style. Link to APA Style
Format examples: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/exam-
ples.

5.3. Critical image

Submissions in this category include visual works such as films, photography, multimedia
pieces, or visual conversations. This format also includes creative and experimental work.

Material to submit:
• Title (max. 10 words)
• Headline (max. 40-50 words): A summary phrase that captures the main argument.
• Written statement (max. 400 words): A brief text explaining the concept behind the
visual work, its relevance to the theme, narrative, cultural or theoretical frameworks
informing the work, and the way the it engages with the themes of design or the critical
discourse at hand.
• Adscription to a Becoming (max. 200 words): A statement explaining how the proposal
aligns with the Becoming vision in relation to one of the six research lines of the congress.
• Visual work (film, photography or multimedia): A digital file or link to the work itself
(e.g., a short film, photography portfolio, or multimedia piece). This should be submitted
in high resolution.
• For images: maximum 10 digital photographs in JPG format, with a minimum
resolution of 300 dpi, and a maximum file size per image of 2 MB.
• For video: maximum duration 30 min, including teaser or trailer, max. 3 min.
Preferred file types: .mp4, .mov, .wmv, avi.
• Contextual materials: If applicable, include links to any supporting documents or
references to exhibitions, screenings, or previous showcases of the work, as well as
any collaboration details (e.g., co-creators or curatorial partners).

6. Presentation Proposals must be submitted electronically via the website www.uia2026bcn.org and
of proposals must adhere to these Terms and Conditions. All form fields, text content of the submis-
sion, and supplementary information must be written entirely in English. Proposals in
any other language will not be accepted, except in the case of videos. In such cases,
subtitles (or descriptions, if necessary, to provide context) should be in English.

Participants must complete the online form to register for the UIA World Congress of
Architects 2026 Barcelona Call for Participants before submitting their proposal(s).
The web form includes, among other details:
• General information
6 • Proposal information
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Barcelona. UIA 2026. a planet in transition.

• Attached images/documents

No additional documents beyond those included in the web form will be accepted, unless
explicitly requested by the organization. The congress reserves the right to request clarifi-
cations or additional information regading submitted entries during the evaluation process.
The number of selected proposals per category and topic will be subject to considera-
tion by the Jury of Experts, the Evaluation Committe and the Scientific Committee of the
congress.

Each individual or team may submit a maximum of two proposals per format.

The works selected in this Call for Participants may be required to submit additional
documentation according to the format of participation (7.1, 7.2). Only the main author of
the submitted proposal will be eligible to present the work at the congress, as outlined
in 7.1. The organization reserves the right to approve or reject any substitution of the
designated speaker.

7. Congress 7.1. Speaker Formats

participation formats
Selected works may be presented through different formats that foster dialogue and
exchange within the congress. These may include individual lectures, discussions
between two speakers, or panel conversations with multiple participants. Presentations
will be accompanied by visual materials such as images, slides, or videos, and will gen-
erally take place in person. However, online participation will also be possible, depend-
ing on the congress’s formats.

The precise structure of discussions and presentations will be refined as the pro-
gramme develops. Formats will range from solo talks to debates, interviews, or thematic
panels featuring multiple voices. The allocation of time and speakers per session will be
adapted to ensure dynamic engagement with the audience.

7.2. Additional Formats

Exhibition
Selected works may be included in the Congress Exhibition, the opening of which will
take place prior to the dates of the Congress. Works presented in this format must meet
the specific conditions set by the exhibition team, including space and installation re-
quirements. The showcase of the entries may be either physical or digital, and addition-
al materials may be requested by the curatorial team to ensure their correct display and
presentation. The curatorial team will be responsible for orchestrating the exhibition,
meticulously featuring all the research content generated previously.

Digital Proceedings
All selected designs, essays and images from this open call will be included in the Digi-
tal Proceedings of the Congress with ISBN, Legal Deposit, and DOI. These proceedings
will be published as Open Access by UPC Commons with a Creative Commons CC-BY-
NC-ND 4.0 license, link https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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Official Catalogue
The Jury of experts will also determine which selected proposals may be included in
the official catalogue, which will be launched during the Congress. This catalogue aims
to provide an overarching perspective on the congress theme and will feature curato-
rial statements, as well as a selection of projects and essays contributed by keynote
guests, critics and researchers.

Note
The Jury will have the authority to determine the presentation format for the selected
works during the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 “Barcelona. Becoming. Archi-
tectures for a planet in transition”.

8. Evaluation criteria The quality of each proposal will be evaluated according to the criteria described below.
Each submission will be evaluated based on 3 categories:

1. Adscription and relevance for the topic of Becoming (according to the Conceptual
Framework Abstract of the Congress)
2. Adscription and relevance for each specific research line (Becoming More-than-hu-
man, Becoming Attuned, Becoming Embodied, Becoming Interdependent, Becoming
Hyper-conscious, Becoming Circular)
3. Quality, originality and innovation of the work, considering its research field and im-
pact in its wider cultural context.
In the categories of Critical Design and Critical Image, the Jury will prioritize submitted
proposals that have not previously been published or presented in public. In the cate-
gory of Critical Essay proposals must be original.

9. Evaluation process The curators of the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona “Becoming. Archi-
tectures for a planet in transition,” together with the Scientific Committee and the Jury
of Experts, will evaluate the broad, cross-sectional perspectives.

9.1 Critical design and Critical image

The evaluation process for Critical design and Critical image will work in a similar manner:

Preliminary examination
The entries submitted will be examined by the open call organisation to assess their
compliance with the submission rules before being formally delivered to the Evaluation
Committee at the beginning of the evaluation procedure. The entries will be checked to
ensure the following:

• Submission of the entry within the deadline.

• Compliance with the formal requirements.
• Completeness of the requested deliverables and the project presentation.

Evaluation process
The evaluation process will be conducted in successive rounds. In the initial stage, all

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eligible submissions will be reviewed by the Evaluation Committee. Entries assessed

as meeting the evaluation criteria to a lesser extent will not proceed to the next stage.
The Jury of Experts, a panel of distinguished international professionals and academ-
ics, will then conduct a comparative assessment of the remaining proposals, evaluating
them holistically based on the defined criteria. The Jury of Experts will have access to
all submitted proposals and may reconsider any entry from the initial stage for further
evaluation.

Given the geographical diversity of their locations or places of residence or work, the
Jury members will convene via interactive video conferences. By means of structured
discussions, the Jury will progressively refine the selection, ensuring that the winning
entries demonstrate a strong conceptual foundation, relevance and innovative design
strategies. The final decision will be documented in the Report of the Jury Decision.

9.2 Critical essay

The evaluation process for Critical essay will have two phases.

The evaluation process for the Critical essay format includes double-blind reviews by
an international peer-review board, and submissions must be fully anonymized. The
peer-review board reflects the six Becoming research lines and the breadth of the invit-
ed formats. COPE Research publishing ethics guidelines, link: https://publicationethics.
org/guidance/guideline/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing.

First phase
An international peer-review board will conduct an initial double-blind review of all en-
tries. This phase will be supervised by the Congress’s Scientific Committee. All accept-
ed essay proposals will proceed to the second phase, submitting an essay that will have
a DOI and will be published as Open Access in the proceedings by UPC Commons with
a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, link: https://creativecommons.org/li-
censes/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .

Second phase
An international peer-review board will conduct a double-blind review of all entries and
narrow down the selection of essays, which will then be passed on to the Jury of Ex-
perts. This Jury, composed of world-renowned professionals and academics from each
of the six Becoming research lines, will review the entries and make the final selection.
Chosen entries in this phase will be invited to participate in the Congress as Speakers
and will be considered for inclusion in the central exhibition of the congress and/or the
official catalogue.

10. Committees and Scientific Committee Members

Expert Panels Joan Busquets, Honorific President of the Congress.
Fuensanta Nieto, President of the Scientific Advisory Committee.
Curators of the Congress: Pau Bajet, Mariona Benedito, Maria Giramé, Tomeu Ramis,
Pau Sarquella and Carmen Torres.
Delegates UIA Regions: 5 representative members .
COAC/CSCAE advisors: Josep Lluis Mateo, Mar Santamaria, Meritxell Inaraja, Oscar
9 Miguel Ares, Elisa Valero.
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Academic support
This open call counts with the institutional support from the ETSAB-UPC (Escola Tècnica
Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) and the
academic advice of Areti Markopoulou.

Jury of Experts
Critical design. Citical essay. Critical image.
Each format will have an associated Jury of Experts, a panel of distinguished profession-
als and academics, each linked to one or more of the research lines of the congress.
The complete list of the jury members will be disclosed in further announcements.

Evaluation Committee
The Evaluation Committee will consist of academics and professionals from diverse
nationalities, with established academic ties in the case of the critical essay. The total
number of evaluators will be determined according to the number of submissions
received through the Call for Participants. The complete list of evaluators will be made
public prior to the start of the selection process.

11. Indexation and Selected works from this open call will be included in the Digital Proceedings of the
dissemination Congress with ISBN, Legal Deposit, and DOI. These proceedings will be published as
Open Access by UPC Commons with a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license,
link https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). The proceedings will be
submitted for evaluation and indexing in the Conference Proceedings Citation Index
(Web of Science/Clarivate Analytics).

There will be further dissemination that aims to broaden the scope of influence of the
contributions. Among the communications presented orally, those best valued by the
Scientific Committee will be eligible for this subsequent publication, based on their
content and at the discretion of the conference management. In addition to the printed
Official Catalogue, further digital publications are expected, aiming to include new con-
tents, debates and discussions arising during the congress days.

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12. Calendar 31 March 2025.

Launch of Open Call.

23 May 2025.
Deadline for submissions - Critical design, Critical image and first phase of Critical essay.
The Open Call will be open until 23 May 2025, 23:59:59 CET.
In the case of the Critical essay, this only includes the essay proposal (1st phase).

20 June 2025
Announcement of selected proposals of the essay proposal (1st phase).

10 September 2025
Deadline for submissions of the complete essays (2nd phase).
The Open Call for the second phase of the complete essay closes on 10
September 2025, 23:59:59 CET.

30 September 2025
Announcement of selected Critical design and Critical image.

20 October 2025
Announcement of selected complete essays (2nd phase).

15 December 2025
Deadline for materials to be included in Catalogue.

January - April 2026

Revision and correction of texts to be included in Catalogue.

May 2026
Reception of materials to be included in the exhibition.

13. Intellectual Copyrights and third party materials

and Industrial Authors accepted to present will be required to complete a copyright transfer form and
Property Rights agree to present the Critical paper, project or image at the UIA World Congress of Archi-
tects 2026 Barcelona “Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition”.

Authors must be able to present documentation of permission to use any third party ma-
terials included in their contribution upon request.

The Science Committee reserves the right to withhold a paper from the programme if
the author fails to comply with policies and guidelines, including deadlines and requests
for submission of materials.

All documentation submitted will be exempt from payment of reproduction rights

(whether for photographs or any other material) for dissemination by the UIA in any
format, and explicit reference to this exemption must be made in an attached commit-
ment document.

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Images
Authors submitting essays that contain images must be able to provide the images
in high-resolution quality upon request for publishing purposes. It is the submitting
author’s responsibility to secure permission of use and publication of included images.
Authors must be able to provide the documentation of permission from the rights holders.

Free copyright commitment document.

Intellectual & industrial property rights

The participant responsible for the authorship of the submitted proposal is the owner of
the intellectual and, where applicable, industrial property rights thereof.
The participant is accountable for ensuring that the proposal submitted does not violate
intellectual property rights, industrial property rights, copyright and/or image rights, and
assumes complete responsibility with regard to third parties.

The UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona organization is free of all liabili-
ty. Once the proposal has been selected and approved, the organizers may publicize
any details considered public (company organization, title, brief, abstract, website and
topic).

14. Data protection https://uia2026bcn.org/legal-notice/

UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona undertakes to maintain the confi-
dentiality of the proposals received. The personal data provided in the application form
will be used exclusively for registration purposes and will not be accessible to the jury
members. If additional information is required the technical secretariat might contact
the participants.

Once the proposal has been selected, UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barce-
lona may consider publishing any details such as author, company/organization, title,
brief, abstract, website, and/or topic, in those channels and means that UIA World
Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona uses for its promotion (social networks, visitor
guide, etc.).

For the purposes of the provisions in current legislation on data protection (Regulation
EU 2016 679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 GDPR), we
inform you that UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona will process all your
data in accordance with the provisions of its Privacy Policy, and that you may exercise
the rights stipulated in this ruling.

15. Information Queries should be sent by email to the Permanent Technical Secretariat
and Queries at callfor@uia2026bcn.org

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Credits Curators “Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition.”

Pau Bajet
Mariona Benedito
Maria Giramé
Tomeu Ramis
Pau Sarquella
Carmen Torres

Scientific Committee
Regina Gonthier – President of the UIA
Marta Vall-llossera – President of the UIA 2026 Congress
Teresa Táboas – Vice President of the UIA 2026 Congress
Guim Costa – Director of the UIA 2026 Congress
Joan Busquets – Honorary President of the UIA 2026 Congress
Fuensanta Nieto – President of the UIA 2026 Scientific Committee
Iñaqui Carnicero – Secretary General for Urban Agenda, Housing, and Architecture
Agustí Serra – Director General for Territorial Planning, Urbanism, and Architecture of the
Government of Catalonia
Maria Buhigas – Chief Architect of the Barcelona City Council

UIA Regional Delegates

Alessandro Bonizzoni – UIA Delegate, Region I
Yannis Zaboleas – UIA Delegate, Region II
Alejandro Echeverri – UIA Delegate, Region III
George Kunihiro – UIA Delegate, Region IV
Chrisna Duplessis – UIA Delegate, Region V

CSCAE/COAC Advisors
Meritxell Inaraja
Josep Lluís Mateo
Mar Santamaria
Elisa Valero
Oscar Ares

Convened Organised by Funded by public administrations