On 6 September, the new students of UIC Barcelona School of Architecture visited the headquarters of the Official Association of Architects of Catalonia (COAC). The students were accompanied on the visit by the director of the school, Josep Lluis i Ginovart, and the director of the association. 

Member of the Board of Governors of the Association of Architects, Dana Bellmunt, officially welcomed the students to the headquarters of the institution, located at Plaça Nova, right in the heart of Barcelona. “We are proud to open our doors to the architects of the future and to offer them our training and cultural spaces for their academic development”, Bellmunt noted during her address. Caterina Capdevilla, communications manager at the association, outlined the services the students can benefit from over the course of their degree, including the weekly programme of activities or the job bank. Similarly, the students were given privileged access to the facilities of the association. The highlights included the library, the historic archive and the mural which Pablo Picasso designed for the building in the 1960s. The archive manager, Andreu Carrascal, showed the students around the building and also gave them a guided tour of the temporary exhibition on the Universal Exhibition of 1888 currently being held at the association. 

This visit was part of the wide range of activities the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture has prepared for the start of the academic year to welcome the new architecture students. On 4 September, the students attended the welcome ceremony and were able to meet the rector of UIC Barcelona, Xavier Gil, in person. On Thursday, 13 September, the new students will celebrate the end of their welcome week with a fraternity dinner hosted in the university cafeteria.