The global event series “Architects, not Architecture” is back in Barcelona at an extraordinary moment. Having hosted events in over 16 countries across 4 continents, AnA returns to a city that has long been a crucible of architectural experimentation, a city that 2026 has chosen to be the global center of architectural conversation.
Barcelona hosts the UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture 2026, the third city ever to hold this title, and a city whose streets are already alive with architectural ambition. The UIA World Congress of Architects (the world’s foremost gathering of architecture professionals, drawing over 10,000 attendees from across the globe) runs in Barcelona from June 28 to July 2, under the theme “Architectures for a Planet in Transition.”. AnA Barcelona 2026 takes place on the evening of July 2, the final night of the Congress, offering the international architecture community the perfect close to a landmark week: an intimate evening of personal stories, candid reflection, and genuine inspiration.
On Thursday, July 2, 2026, at the iconic Auditorium of La Pedrera, Casa Milà, one of Barcelona’s most celebrated Gaudí landmarks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, AnA will bring together three architects whose work is united by a powerful and timely common thread: the reuse and transformation of buildings. Presented with our Main Sponsor and Co-Host VELUX, this edition places a special focus on how architects across different contexts and scales are reimagining, adapting, and breathing new life into existing structures, one of the most urgent and relevant conversations in architecture today.
– Winy Maas, MVRDV, Rotterdam – www.mvrdv.nl
– Xu Tiantian, DnA_Design and Architecture, Beijing – www.designandarchitecture.net
– Arno Brandlhuber, bplus.xyz (b+) and HouseEurope!, Berlin – www.bplus.xyz
Doors open at 6:30 pm. Talks commence at 7:00 pm. The talks will be held in English.
This event is co-presented with our Main Partner and Co-Host VELUX, and kindly supported by our partners JUNG and EQUITONE.
Tickets
Main Partner and co-host:
Silver partners:
Program live
18:30
“Doors open” & Get-Together
19:00 – 19:15
Welcome
19:15-21:00
Speakers (20-minute talk & 10-minute interview)
21:00 – 21:30
Round table discussion & Q&A
21:30 – 22:30
Get-Together & Fingerfood
Laufen. Bäder fürs Leben
Seit 1892 gestaltet der Schweizer Hersteller LAUFEN Badwelten für Körper und Seele. Das Unternehmen steht heute für ganzheitliche Badezimmerkultur mit
Fokus auf Nachhaltigkeit, exzellentes Design, Innovation und Technologieführerschaft, die einer langen Tradition hochwertiger Handwerkskunst entspringt.
ROMA
Gut geplanter Sonnenschutz ist unverzichtbar für die Gestaltung von Raumklima, Lichtstimmung und Privatsphäre. Die ROMA Architektenberatung begleitet Sie individuell von der Planung des geeigneten Sonnenschutzes bis zur individuellen Realisierung, damit Ihre kreativen Ideen professionell und effizient umgesetzt werden können.
The event venue
The Miralles Concert Hall is part of the 2011 extension of the Youth Music School, designed by EMBT – Enric Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue architects. The extension, completed 10 years after the original project, is located in the narrow space between the old school and the new Youth Music School, creating a new passage between the two buildings.
A folded entrance roof covers the foyer and connects to the ramp of the existing music school on the upper floor. The auditorium, with a capacity of over 400 people, is elevated to the first floor, allowing for an open space on the ground floor that houses the main foyer and a large multipurpose area. This space is visible as an irregular round shape with a gallery level. The brick façade, in both material and form, references the existing buildings constructed 10 years earlier.
About the Speakers
Winy Maas is a Founding Partner, Urban Planner and Landscape Architect of MVRDV, the internationally acclaimed Rotterdam-based practice he co-founded with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries in 1993. Driven by a commitment to green, user-defined, and sustainable urbanism, MVRDV has earned global recognition for its innovative, experimental approach merging theory with practice across architecture, urban design, and landscape. Among the firm’s most celebrated projects are the Dutch Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, the Markthal in Rotterdam (2014), Crystal Houses in Amsterdam (2016), the Tianjin Binhai Library (2017), Valley in Amsterdam (2022), and Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen (2021) – the first publicly accessible art depot in the world. Maas is also Professor of Urbanism and Architecture at Delft University of Technology, where he founded The Why Factory in 2008, a research institute dedicated to the cities of the future. In 2015, he was appointed to the Order of the Dutch Lion by the Dutch government, and in 2011 received the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur from France. www.mvrdv.nl
Xu Tiantian is the Founder and Principal Architect of DnA_Design and Architecture, an interdisciplinary practice established in Beijing in 2004. She studied architecture at Tsinghua University and received her Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where she is currently also a professor at the School of Architecture. Her practice is internationally recognised for its pioneering approach to rural revitalisation through what she describes as “architectural acupuncture” – small-scale, site-specific interventions designed to activate local culture, agriculture, and tourism. DnA has built over 20 public structures in China’s mountainous Songyang County, a project recognised by UN-Habitat in 2019 as a global model for urban-rural integration. Her recent accolades include the Swiss Architectural Award (2022), the Berlin Art Prize (2023), the Marcus Prize for Architecture (2023), the Holcim Gold Award for Asia-Pacific (2023), the UNESCO Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, and the Wolf Prize in Architecture (2025). www.designandarchitecture.net
Arno Brandlhuber is an architect and urban planner based in Berlin, and Professor of Architecture and Design at ETH Zurich. After founding his first practice in Cologne in 1992, he established brandlhuber+ in 2006 as a collaborative architectural practice dedicated to working across disciplines, offices, and individuals. His work – including Brunnenstrasse 9 (Berlin, 2009), the Antivilla (Krampnitz, 2014), and the conversion of the Brutalist St. Agnes church into an art space (Berlin, 2015) – has earned international recognition for its radical approach to architectural reuse and transformation. Beyond building, Brandlhuber uses publications, exhibitions, and film to create a dialogue between practice and theory, with a particular interest in legislation as a driver of the built environment. His work has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2016. In 2023, Brandlhuber co-founded HouseEurope! with Olaf Grawert, a non-profit that brings together industry expertise with policy advocacy. Evolving from a European Citizens’ Initiative with over 80,000 supporters and 250 partners, HouseEurope! embodies his conviction that systemic change in the built environment requires both architectural innovation and legislative transformation. www.bplus.xyz and www.houseeurope.org/