11th Advanced Architecture Contest , Barcelona / Spanien

 

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC)

 

To celebrate Barcelona as the World Capital of Architecture, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) launches the 11th Advanced Architecture Contest under the theme “Barcelona 2051: City Futures for a Warming Planet”

 

This new edition invites architects, designers, and visionaries from around the world to rethink the near future of cities and architecture at a time when humanity faces unprecedented challenges related to urban life: climate change, housing crises, social inequalities, and the emergence of artificial intelligence.

 

The contest aims to explore how the city —as a living and evolving organism— can reinvent itself over the next 25 years. Participants are encouraged to imagine new urban models, systems, and experiences that respond to these challenges through design, technology, and collective imagination.

 

Projects may approach the topic through utopian, dystopian, or realistic perspectives, speculating on how the built environment, its governance, and its inhabitants will transform by the year 2051.

 

While the competition focuses on Barcelona —the city where the term urbanism was first coined— participants may also address any other city in the world, as long as their proposals offer ideas and strategies that could be applicable to Barcelona’s future. The contest thus invites a global conversation about how architecture can shape more resilient, inclusive, and intelligent urban environments.

 

Proposals may include designs and ideas related to architecture, urban planning, landscape design, artificial intelligence applied to cities, interaction design, or any other practice or technique that uses design as a means to envision new futures for Barcelona and other cities around the world.

 

The competition is opened to students and professionals with no age limit.

The projects may be carried out individually or in groups, with no restriction on the number of members of the team.

 

Launch date of the competition: November 5, 2025

Submission Deadline: February 12, 2026

Results Announcement: March 1st 2026

Exhibition and Publication: June 2026

 

1st Prize: €3,000 + Full Scholarship for a Master’s Program at IAAC (value approx. €19,875)

2nd Prize: €2,000 + Full Scholarship for a Master’s Program at IAAC (value approx. €19,875)

3rd Prize: €1,000 + Full Scholarship for a Master’s Program at IAAC (value approx. €19,875)

In addition, honourable mentions may be awarded at the jury’s discretion.