11th Advanced Architecture Contest 2026

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: Designing the Cities of the Future.”

IAAC launches its 11th Advanced Architecture Contest as part of the official program of Barcelona World Capital of Architecture 2026.

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.

Key Details

📅 Application Deadline: February 12th, 2026

🏆 Total Award Value: €60,000

🔗 Registration: advancedarchitecturecontest.org

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 international jury will be composed of renowned architects, urbanists, researchers, and IAAC representatives. The full list of jury members is on the website.

The jury’s decision will be final and unappealable.

Competition Objective

Participants are invited to propose design visions that reimagine the architecture and cities of the future across multiple scales —from the building to the neighborhood, the metropolis, and the planet. Projects should integrate spatial, technological, ecological, and social dimensions, offering strategies that address the following challenges:

Climate and Decabornization –How can cities adapt to and mitigate climate change?
Housing and Urban Inclusion – How can we design for accessibility, diversity, and affordability?
Digital Intelligence – How will AI, data, and automation reshape urban systems?
Ecological Metabolisms – How can architecture engage with living systems, materials, and cycles?
Public Life and Civic Imagination – How can we design spaces for community, learning, and creativity?

Scales of Intervention

All proposals submitted for the competition should address multiple scales of intervention, demonstrating an understanding of the impact of the proposed design across various scales. Participants should consider the following scales: body, interior, building, city, territory, and planet with an understanding of their interconnectedness and the potential for AI mixed to non-AI tools to shape each scale. The contest encourages participants to propose transcalar designs anywhere in the world that reflect its diverse cultural, environmental, economic, or social conditions.

Evaluation Criteria

The competition evaluates design proposals based on four key criteria:

Narrative Capacity: Ability to convey advanced design projections effectively, blending AI tools with traditional design tools to tell a compelling story.

Relevance to Topics: Alignment with one topic proposed and relevance of the solution offered.

Design Quality and Innovation: Quality of the design and spatial innovation of novel and creative solutions.

Integration of AI and Non-AI Tools: Capacity to combine the strengths of AI and non-AI tools, with AI offering automation and generative capabilities and non-AI tools providing precision and human creativity.