The ICOM Design 2026 Annual Conference will take place in Barcelona, in a particularly significant year for the city. Designated World Capital of Architecture, Barcelona is also commemorating the centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudí, whose work has left a lasting mark on the city’s built landscape and cultural identity. Gaudí’s practice provides a particularly stimulating starting point for this reflection, as it challenges the boundaries between architecture, design, craftsmanship and the decorative arts.

The conference, «The Architect Beyond the Building: Design and the Decorative Arts», will be held at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) and will explore the figure of the architect beyond the role traditionally associated with architectural and urban planning projects. Bringing together leading researchers, curators and museum professionals, the conference examines architectural practice from the perspectives of design, craftsmanship and the intimate scale. It also addresses the broad range of creative outputs developed by architects both within the framework of building projects and beyond them, including furniture, ceramics, jewellery, graphic design, curatorship and exhibition design, as well as interior design and architectural ornamentation.

The conference explores these multidisciplinary practices beyond the scale of the building, addressing projects, creative processes, materials, photography and artistic influences in diverse geographical and cultural contexts around the world.

View the full programme (PDF - 1.7 MB).

The working language of the activity will be English, with no translation.

Organised by: 

Image: Elvira Roca on the balcony of the first floor of La Pedrera. Roca-Sastre Family, early 1950s. Courtesy of Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera.