Kickoff Academic Year 2026/27

The 2026/27 Academic Year has officially begun at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), bringing together more than 280 students from 40 countries across the institute’s on-campus and online Educational Programmes.

At the opening event, IAAC Director Daniel Ibañéz and IAAC Academic Director Areti Markopoulou welcomed this year’s incoming cohort, marking the start of a new chapter for the community of makers, researchers and architects that defines IAAC.

This year’s students arrive from a wide range of countries and disciplines, spanning architecture, engineering, design, the arts, sciences and the social sciences, among other fields connected to the built environment. That diversity of background is, as every year, one of the defining traits of life at IAAC.

During the session, the IAAC team presented itself to the new cohort, and returning second-year students shared their own paths and what brought them to the institute. Across the year ahead, students will have full access to IAAC’s facilities five days a week, alongside the institute’s programme of Lecture Series, Open Days and other events.

All on-campus activity takes place across IAAC’s two locations: the main campus in Poblenou, Barcelona, and the forested campus in Collserola Park. The Poblenou campus, on Carrer de Pujades 102, houses the spaces for research, production and architectural projects, including Fab Lab Barcelona, while IAAC Atelier, on the same street, gives students a 2,000-square-metre space to develop individual and team work. Valldaura Campus, the institute’s base in Collserola Park, operates as an innovation hub built around energy, information and fabrication technologies, with its own laboratory driving research into self-sufficiency.

Discover IAAC’s academic offer and become part of the next generation of change-makers. Explore our Educational Programmes.