In the international calendar of 2026, Barcelona establishes itself as an almost essential stop for anyone looking at architecture as a tool of public policy and a key to interpreting the present. Cradle of Catalan Modernism and one of Europe’s most closely observed urban laboratories, the city brings together this year a season of celebrations aimed at reaffirming—and at the same time redefining—its global centrality: the centenary of the death of architect Antoni Gaudí, the 150th anniversary of the death of Ildefons Cerdà and, above all, its nomination as World Architecture Capital 2026. While this recognition becomes the pretext for a broad reflection on the role of the built environment in contemporary urban life, the Year of Gaudí brings the focus back to one of its most recognisable cores: the Sagrada Família, still an open construction site, the perfect symbol of an architecture that never coincides with its own time. The 2026 program is therefore extensive and wide-ranging: over 1,500 events across the city from January to December, including exhibitions, installations, urban itineraries (the Open Barri), guided tours, festivals, celebrations, and conferences. What emerges is a commitment to presenting architecture as a public and democratic matter, not as a discipline for specialists, expanding the discussion on heritage, sustainability, and the quality of collective space to the real city, its neighbourhoods, and their everyday frictions. Few European cities have managed to turn architecture into such a recognizable civic language, or into an ever-evolving urban tool capable of driving social, political, economic, and cultural change. Barcelona, after all, has inseparably linked its identity to this dimension. Modernism remains its most recognizable hallmark, with a constellation of buildings now listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but alongside this legacy coexist other layers of interpretation—urban planning, landscape design, interior design—in a dynamic interplay of