Barcelona Municipality | Challenge to reuse construction waste in public space renovations

The Barcelona City Council, alongside BIMSA, the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, the Provincial Council of Barcelona, and the UIA World Congress of Architects, has launched the international challenge “Mineral: Architectures of Urban Mining” to find innovative ways to reuse construction waste in public space projects. Coordinated by the BIT Habitat Foundation, the initiative offers 336 000 EUR in funding and invites architecture firms, engineering companies, universities, research centres, and other sector organisations to propose new systems or construction methods that promote material circularity and urban decarbonisation. Selected teams will first receive 6 000 EUR to develop their ideas, with two finalists awarded up to 150 000 EUR each to pilot their solutions in real urban settings managed by BIMSA during 2026.

The initiative is part of the lead-up to Barcelona hosting the 2026 UIA World Congress of Architects and aims to demonstrate architecture's transformative power through a year-long programme of events. Winning projects will be showcased at the Congress and tested in pilot sites across the city, with one year of monitoring to evaluate outcomes. The partnership between the Provincial Council of Barcelona and BIT Habitat seeks to ensure the solutions are scalable and replicable, with 100 000 EUR in additional funding provided to extend the benefits to other municipalities.

Source: www.barcelona.cat (in Catalan)