"Design Is Inseparable from Activism": In Conversation with Andrés Jaque at the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026

"Design Is Inseparable from Activism": In Conversation with Andrés Jaque at the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026

At the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 in Barcelona, the theme Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition framed architecture as a discipline operating within environmental, political, and social transformations rather than outside them. Among the speakers participating in this edition was architect Andrés Jaque, founder of the Office for Political Innovation and Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). During the Congress, ArchDaily spoke with Jaque about architecture's capacity to generate alternatives, the role of experimentation in education, and why transition should be understood as a condition rather than a destination.