How can we design habitable spaces within the planet's water boundaries?
As part of the "Architecture for Human, Urban and Planetary Well-being" programme of Barcelona World Capital of Architecture 2026, on 9 July we will present "Water Sustainability: Architectures for a Hydrological Future", an event organised in collaboration with the Enric Miralles Foundation that invites participants to reflect on the role of water as one of the defining factors shaping architectural and urban design in the 21st century.
For decades, water has been understood primarily as a technical infrastructure dedicated to supplying and servicing cities. Today, however, the realities of the climate emergency, prolonged droughts, increasing water scarcity and territorial transformation demand a profound rethinking of this perspective.
From this viewpoint, water is no longer seen as an external resource to architecture but as a fundamental condition of contemporary design, capable of influencing the form of buildings, urban systems, public policies, and the relationships between cities and their surrounding territories.
Bringing together perspectives from architecture, landscape, environmental innovation and resource management, the session will explore new strategies for integrating water cycles into the design of our cities, promoting more resilient, regenerative and adaptive models. It proposes a critical shift: from hydraulic infrastructure to a culture of water; from resource management to ecological planning; and from sustainability understood as efficiency to sustainability understood as coexistence with natural systems.
The challenge is no longer simply how to manage the visible water flowing through buildings and cities, but how to understand and transform the invisible water footprint embedded in materials, production processes and the global systems that shape both contemporary architecture and our ways of life.
Guest Speakers
During the event, visitors will also have the opportunity to experience The Architecture of Virtual Water, an immersive installation designed by EMBT Architects for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2025. The pavilion serves as both an exhibition space and a platform for reflection on the relationships between architecture, materials and water.
This event forms part of the programme of Barcelona 2026 World Capital of Architecture, a designation jointly awarded by UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA) to the city hosting the UIA World Congress of Architects, establishing Barcelona as a global forum for architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture.
Reserve your place today and don't miss the opportunity to join the conversation.