Barcelona celebrates Architecture Weeks 2025: thinking, walking and feeling the built city

From 12 May to 28 June 2025, Barcelona opens its doors—and its plazas, streets and buildings—for a new edition of Architecture Weeks, an event that goes beyond the professional sphere to invite the entire public to observe, question and enjoy their urban surroundings. Organised by Barcelona City Council and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, with the collaboration of over 70 organisations and 12 universities, Architecture Weeks 2025 offer more than 200 activities across the city’s ten districts.

It is not only a celebration of architecture, but an opportunity to strengthen the bond between citizens and the space they inhabit. The city becomes a living network of experiences: exhibitions, guided tours, ephemeral installations, workshops, lectures and encounters that invite us to see, differently, what we thought we already knew.

A city looking at itself

In a particularly significant moment, as the Catalan capital prepares to become World Capital of Architecture in 2026, under the auspices of UNESCO and the UIA, this edition of Architecture Weeks acts as a prelude, a space for reflection and public participation. What does it mean to inhabit Barcelona today? What kind of city do we want to build? What role does architecture play in shaping a more just and sustainable urban future?

The answers emerge through a wide range of formats and proposals. Visitors will be able to explore both heritage buildings and contemporary works, engage in dialogue with architects, urbanists and communicators, and take part in sensory and educational experiences designed for a broad spectrum of audiences.

Dialogues between architecture and the media

One of the programme’s highlights is the fourth edition of Architecture and the Media, taking place on 26 and 27 May at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion. This international forum, now well established, brings together professionals from architecture, journalism and cultural communication to discuss the role of the media in conveying architectural thought. In an age of digital transformation, the challenge is considerable: how to narrate spatial complexity, how to translate architecture for diverse audiences without losing depth or rigour.

Experiencing architecture through art

One of the experiences that combines architecture and sensitivity is La Miró en conversación, a unique tour through the Fundació Joan Miró building, designed by Josep Lluís Sert. Scheduled for 25 May and 1 and 8 June, these visits move beyond a traditional exhibition format to foster dialogue: guided by an architect, the sessions propose an active exploration of space through shared observation, spoken word and silence. A different way of reading architecture, not so much with the mind, but through the body and the gaze.

Architecture in the classroom

Architecture Weeks also serve as a platform for urban education. The Architects’ Association of Catalonia (COAC) is promoting school workshops and participatory activities aimed at introducing younger generations to spatial thinking and the design of everyday environments. One of the central events will be the Architecture Festival, which this year will take place at Llars Mundet, featuring family activities, guided tours and an exhibition on the “Catalan Mediterranean return”: an itinerary that highlights the landscape, heritage and cultural values of vernacular architecture from a contemporary perspective.

A celebration that is extended, plural and open

Far from presenting architecture as an exclusive language, this edition offers a decentralised and diverse programme. Activities are not limited to iconic central locations, but extend to all neighbourhoods, activating cultural venues, public spaces and buildings that often go unnoticed. It is a strategy aimed at democratising the architectural experience—making it not only a subject of contemplation, but a shared field of action.

Ultimately, Architecture Weeks 2025 are an invitation to pause and observe. To understand that the city is not just a backdrop, but a living organism in constant transformation. And that architecture, beyond its technical or aesthetic dimension, is a tool for imagining more liveable, sustainable and shared futures.