10 June 2026 marks the centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudí, the most important Catalan modernist architect of recent centuries and one of the most influential figures internationally. UIC Barcelona has chosen to pay tribute to him with an exhibition entitled “Learning from Gaudí in the 21st century”. The initiative is led by lecturer Alberto T. Estévez, an architect with in-depth knowledge of Gaudí’s work, and forms part of the event “Barcelona, World Capital of Architecture”.
The exhibition opened on 3 June in the Assembly Hall. Alberto T. Estévez was joined by Galdric Santana, director of the Gaudí Chair at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa, an architect specialising in artificial intelligence applied to architecture. They took part in a round table examining Gaudí’s legacy.
Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa opened the discussion with a question, “It often seems that we are still discovering new aspects of Gaudí: why, then, is he almost absent from academic study?” In response, Galdric Santana offered his perspective: “In Europe and the Americas – setting aside the Eastern world – Gaudí is included in all undergraduate programmes, even in core modules such as geometry and construction, whereas here he is not. He has been largely disregarded. We tend to encounter him only in art history books,” he explained.
Santana expanded on this idea, “Only now, with growing interest in parametric architecture and increasing global concern for sustainability, are we returning to Gaudí. There is also renewed interest in adaptive form, which he was already exploring more than a century ago.”
Antoni Gaudí and music
Galdric Santana is the curator of the Gaudí Year being marked in 2026. He shared with attendees the first prototypes of the bells for the Sagrada Família, which will become a central feature of the basilica. “Gaudí can be considered a campanologist; indeed, he is a figure worthy of study on that basis alone,” he stated. The director of the Gaudí Chair discussed the design of the tubular bells conceived by the architect, which are still in development today.
“At first, the prototypes presented a problem: the tones he wanted to produce became distorted over distance,” he explained. After refining the design, Gaudí’s bells will produce the full range of the 84 keys of an organ and will be heard across Barcelona as the architect intended.
Gaudí’s lost lamp and 3D printing
Another highlight of the event was the presentation of a lamp produced using 3D printing, based on a sketch by Antoni Gaudí dating back a century and recovered by the Gaudí Chair. According to the drawing, the lamp was intended for the crypt of the Sagrada Família and forms part of Gaudí’s final works, most likely from the period 1925–1926.
The exhibition, led by lecturer Alberto T. Estévez, also included other designs by Antoni Gaudí that were never built, such as Casa Graner, an unfinished project for the painter Lluís Graner, and the Pomaret Bridge, planned for Carrer de la Immaculada, on the site where the Barcelona campus of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya now stands, then known as Carrer de Santa Eulàlia.
These models have been developed within the Master’s Degree in Biodigital Architecture directed by Alberto T. Estévez. Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa highlighted the distinctive nature of this master’s programme, noting its integration of biodigital concepts alongside Gaudí’s legacy. “When we conceived this School in 1996, we reviewed existing programmes and set out to offer something different. Like Gaudí on the day of his death, we too hope to leave a lasting mark,” he concluded.
