Our founding partner Eduardo Gutiérrez took part in a conference in Palermo on architecture and sustainable urban development, alongside Xavier Vilalta, as part of the centenary celebrations of the Ordine degli Architetti and the 20th anniversary of the Instituto Cervantes Palermo.
On 12 June, Palermo hosted a conversation on the future of Mediterranean cities with Barcelona as a point of departure. At the Chiesa di Santa Eulalia dei Catalani, home of the Instituto Cervantes Palermo, our founding partner Eduardo Gutiérrez shared the Barcelona experience in the conference “Architecture and sustainable urban development. The example of Barcelona”, alongside the architect Xavier Vilalta, founder and director of Vilalta Studio.
The meeting took place in the context of a dual celebration: the centenary of the Ordine degli Architetti P.P.C. di Palermo (1926–2026) and the twentieth anniversary of the Instituto Cervantes Palermo (2006–2026). A symbolic coincidence that situates architecture as a shared territory between Spain and Italy, and which reactivates the historical link between Palermo and Barcelona — two cities connected since the thirteenth century by Catalan trade, of which the very church that today houses the Cervantes stands as a witness.
This bond between the two cities is renewed at a singular moment for the Catalan capital. In 2026 Barcelona holds the title of UIA-UNESCO World Capital of Architecture — unfolding from February to December a programme that turns the city into an open laboratory — and will host the World Congress of the International Union of Architects. For ON-A, a studio based in Barcelona for two decades, this year condenses the conversation we have long held with the city: how to rethink the public space, reconcile density and nature, and return to public use what tends to be privatized. Bringing that conversation to Palermo is, in part, translating it to other Mediterranean shores.
This bond between the two cities is renewed at a singular moment for the Catalan capital. In 2026 Barcelona holds the title of UIA-UNESCO World Capital of Architecture — unfolding from February to December a programme that turns the city into an open laboratory — and will host the World Congress of the International Union of Architects. For ON-A, a studio based in Barcelona for two decades, this year condenses the conversation we have long held with the city: how to rethink the public space, reconcile density and nature, and return to public use what tends to be privatized. Bringing that conversation to Palermo is, in part, translating it to other Mediterranean shores.
The conversation, curated by architect Arianna Callocchia and introduced and moderated by Gaia Girgenti, Councillor of the Ordine degli Architetti P.P.C. di Palermo, was preceded by institutional greetings from Juan Carlos Reche Cala, Director of the Instituto Cervantes Palermo; Carlos Tercero, Cultural Counsellor of the Embassy of Spain in Italy; Giuseppina Leone, President of the Ordine; and Lina Bellanca, President of the Fondazione dell’Ordine degli Architetti P.P.C. di Palermo.
Promoted by the Ordine degli Architetti P.P.C. di Palermo and the Fondazione, and held under the patronage of the Embassy of Spain in Italy and the Instituto Cervantes Palermo, the encounter was conceived as an invitation to strengthen the dialogue between two Mediterranean cities that share scale, climate, and a shared will for transformation.
A dialogue that will remain open.
Photo credit: © Fausto Brigantino
