How we design, build, renovate and inhabit our built environment has become one of the defining challenges of our time. The buildings and construction sector is responsible for nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while also consuming enormous quantities of raw materials, energy and land. In response to the climate and biodiversity crises, architecture is undergoing a profound transformation.

Presented by the Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE), Form Follows Transformation highlights exemplary architectural projects from across Europe that demonstrate how this shift is already taking shape. The exhibition showcases projects that embrace renovation, adaptive reuse, circularity, climate resilience and social inclusion as essential dimensions of contemporary architectural quality.

Rather than treating sustainability as a technical add-on, the featured works reveal how transformation can generate spaces that are environmentally responsible, culturally meaningful and deeply connected to people’s everyday lives. They illustrate a growing architectural culture that values what already exists, prioritises renovation over demolition, and sees buildings as long-term social and material resources.

The exhibition also reflects the broader European policy and cultural context shaping this transition. From the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) to the New European Bauhaus initiative, Europe is increasingly recognising that the transformation of the built environment must reconcile sustainability, beauty and inclusion.

‘The crisis of our built environment refuses simple remedies. A building with a reduced carbon footprint is a beginning, not an answer. The world presents layered pathologies – ecological, social, material – and architecture, if it is honest, must respond to all of them at once. That requires collaboration across disciplines, across the old boundaries between who designs and who inhabits. What emerges from these projects is something quieter than a manifesto. A return to proximity: local materials, local knowledge, local hands. A recognition that the most durable solutions are often the least complicated. And an understanding that every existing building carries a character of its own – a logic, a history, a particular way of holding space – that deserves to be heard before anything new is proposed. We should be aware of empty promises about sustainability and solutions that are more about marketing than the environment’ stated Reto GMÜR Member of the ACE Executive Board and President of the Jury of the exhibition.

Curated by ACE and developed with the support of its Member Organisations, Form Follows Transformation brings together projects that demonstrate how architecture can become a powerful driver of resilience, cohesion and positive change. Through these works, ACE aims to inspire policymakers, professionals, investors and citizens to accelerate the transition towards a more sustainable, inclusive and high-quality built environment.

Visit the exhibition during the UIA Congress in Barcelona and don’t miss our policy seminar on 29 June 2026.

FORM FOLLOWS TRANSFORMATION

Where? DHUB Barcelona – UIA Congress

When? Date 28 June to 2 July 2026

The exhibition is co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe programme as part of the CULTUR-ARCH project (2025–2028).