Deconstructing Myths proposes a critical framework for reconsidering recurring narratives in architecture and urbanism. Developed as a congress concept for the UIA World Congress Barcelona 2026, it argues that many disciplinary concerns -sustainability, technology, social responsibility, urban justice, architectural education and the future of cities – have repeatedly returned in UIA congresses for decades, often without fundamentally changing practice.
Taking Barcelona as both a historical reference and an active laboratory of urban transformation – a city that has become both a model and a myth, continuously reproduced, amplified and preserved through powerful processes of branding and representation, the proposal argues that, precisely as host of the UIA World Congress 2026, Barcelona is uniquely positioned to initiate a broader critical reassessment of architectural and urbanistic myths. Its own capacity to construct and disseminate influential urban narratives becomes the starting point for questioning established assumptions, inherited models and contemporary orthodoxies across the discipline. The aim of the congress is not simply to debunk myths, but to replace them with more grounded, socially relevant and intellectually rigorous approaches to architecture and urban development.