The CASA SEAT auditorium will host on Monday, May 13, a new session of the cycle The New Barcelona – Moments Estelars, dedicated to giving visibility to those areas in which the city excels and which are drivers of the projection of the Barcelona brand. Architecture will this time be the protagonist element of the day, which will feature the participation of two leaders in the sector: the Chief Architect of the Barcelona City Council, Maria Buhigas San José, and Joan Roig Duran, founding partner of Batlleroig, one of Barcelona's most successful architecture firms, with more than 40 years of experience.
Under the motto The feared and admired Barcelona of architects, with Buhigas and Roig we will discuss the architectural moment Barcelona is experiencing and warm up for the celebration in 2026 of a first-magnitude event that will once again place the city at the forefront of the sector: the World Capital of Architecture. As always, the day will be led by journalist and UPF-BSM professor Toni Aira. With the collaboration of CASA SEAT, Barcelona Global, Must Media Group and Giny the session will take place at 6:30 p.m. To attend this meeting organized by The New Barcelona Post as an audience, it is essential to reserve a ticket in advance. To get one, completely free of charge, click here.
The capital status of architecture will allow us to reclaim our heritage and the talent in the city and, at the same time, disseminate how transformative urban planning and architecture are. It is expected that for ten months all districts of the city will be filled with activities, from exhibitions to routes, workshops, open days, installations, conferences, and competitions. In 2026, three decades later, Barcelona will also once again host the Congress of the International Union of Architects, a meeting where the sector will address the challenges we face as a society and which will confirm that architecture is more necessary than ever to solve problems such as climate change or access to housing.
According to the Barcelona City Council, the event plans to leave a permanent legacy in the city. On the one hand, a large-scale model of Barcelona will be created. On the other hand, an international ideas competition will be held to intervene in party walls of the city to encourage them to add value to the urban landscape. It will include artistic and thematic interventions related to values such as habitability, sustainability or biodiversity.
The Moments Estel·lars session will kick off the Architecture Weeks, which will be held from May 14 to June 28, as a prelude to this great event and with the challenge of strengthening the link between architecture and citizenship. Organized by the Barcelona City Council and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, the Architecture Weeks have five strategic partners (the College of Architects of Catalonia, the FAD/ArquinFAD, 48h Open House Barcelona, Construmat and the College of Technical Architecture of Barcelona) and about fifteen academic partners (all Catalan schools of architecture and space design). Exhibitions, competitions, awards, talks, guided tours and parties will be programmed for all audiences and in all districts of the city.
A graduate in Architecture from ETSAB (UPC) and Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University (UC-NewYork), Maria Buhigas has extensive practical experience in providing technical assistance services for local urban development, in supporting municipalities' decision-making in strategic urban planning, both nationally and internationally, in advisory services for bilateral cooperation agencies (United Nations system agencies and the World Bank) and for private sector companies. Currently, she is the Chief Architect of the city of Barcelona, a trustee of the Catalunya-Europa Foundation and an associate professor of territorial and urban planning, in various degrees and master's programs, at the Department of Geography of the UAB. Previously, she worked, among others, for the Mataró City Council and for the Barcelona Regional Agency.
Joan Roig has been an architect since 1981, graduating from the Barcelona School of Architecture, ETSAB. That same year he partnered with Enric Batlle Durany to form Batlleiroig. Since then, they have developed multiple projects in the fields of building, landscaping, and planning, always from the perspective of landscape and nature, committed to the environment and involved in the search for solutions to resolve our planet's climate emergency. He has taught Architectural Projects at the Barcelona School of Architecture since 1984, as well as in the Master's in Landscape Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the Barcelona School of Agriculture (ESAB).
He has been a visiting professor at numerous international universities and director of BIArch (Barcelona Institute of Architecture). His work as a juror, both in national and international competitions ---Europan, Spanish Architecture Biennial, European Landscape Biennial--- and as a consulting member, has been highly notable. He has served as a Culture vocal for the Barcelona Demarcation of the Official College of Architects of Catalonia, a consultant for the Mixta collection of Editorial Gustavo Gili, and a member of the Architecture Commission of the Barcelona City Council.