Beauty, Space, and the Sacred: Gaudí at 100

A 3-day International Conference  

Join leading architects, theologians, philosophers, art historians, sociologists, and scientists to mark the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death by asking an especially relevant question for our times:  how do the spaces we inhabit move us, transform us, and open us to wonder, beauty, and the sacred? 

While celebrating Gaudí and sacred architecture, the Beauty, Space, and the Sacred: Gaudí at 100 conference, held from November 5-7, 2026 at The Catholic University of America, will also broadly explore how museums, natural landscapes, concert halls, and ordinary built environments can serve as thresholds to beauty, wonder, and the sacred. 

Conference Aims  

We are at a moment when public conversation about beauty, meaning, and the built environment is being reshaped by neuroscience, by the global restoration of monumental sacred spaces, and by renewed attention to the human need for wonder. This conference will serve as a landmark gathering that places one of history's most beloved architects at the center of a rigorous, multidisciplinary inquiry into the transformative power of aesthetic experience. It will help to identify and augment the substantial role of beauty in a range of disciplines.

The Gaudí Conference will stand as a signature event in its field. It will enable American students, scholars, architects, clergy, and citizens to engage with figures responsible for the most significant works of sacred architecture in the contemporary world, and with the humanities scholars working to understand what those works mean for human life.

To pre-register, email Liam Gilbert-Lawrence.