"Concéntrico wants to achieve a better city", says Javier Peña as he inaugurates the International Festival of Architecture and Design of Logroño in Spain. An event that since its first edition in 2015 has proposed rediscovering the spaces of interest in the historic center, reflecting on the urban environment through different proposals for installations and ephemeral exhibitions. This year, it celebrates its eighth meeting from the 1st to the 6th of September.
The week has started with a higher temperature than usual and in various parts of the city, you can find the new interventions that bring the incorporation of the domestic, identity, ecology, play, and social commitment, as a novelty. Not only in the traditional locations of the event such as the Plaza Escuelas Trevijano, but in new locations that connect us with new landscapes, such as Monte Cantabria or the River Ebro.
From "Shadows" by Pawel Grobelny, a gesture that complements an existing architecture, to "Dark Sky", a kind of recently landed owl designed by Matali Crasset, discover the 20 Installations and exhibitions that inaugurate this Concentrico 2022.
- "One Table" in Plaza Escuelas Trevijano / AAA
It rescues the essence of a long traditional route, highlighting the value of a collective gathering in a collective space. An invitation to sit at the table and celebrate.
- "Extraordinary Door" in Plaza del Revellín / Associates Architecture
It introduces a small square that is now a place of passage and functions in the dialogue between two elements: one that invites you to enter and one that invites you to stay.
- "De-alienating the Home" in Pasaje Chimenea / Central Saint Martins - Gonzalo Herrero + Pati Santos
It seeks to break with the modern canons of domestic space, inviting the public to question its limits and definition.
- "House with 4 Palm Trees" in Patio COAR / Tudor Vlăsceanu
The space opens only towards the 4 palm trees and the sky. These fragments of the context are interwoven and joined together, essentially forming the experience of the space.
- "Urban Seedbeds" in Plaza del Mercado / BUDCUD
It makes a powerful visual statement about the vital role of the city's vegetation and the opportunities it offers to strengthen the local community and enrich the local context.
- "Prior" in Calle Marqués de San Nicolás, 20 / SKULL studio
Relates the observations of neuroscientific disciplines to the practice of play installation design. The spatial layout is conceived with the intention of stimulating different functions of the human physical and mental apparatus.
- "Popular Theatre" in Plaza San Bartolomé / Yemail Arquitectura
From the scale to the expression of this wooden scaffolding, they have a playful and festive character that evokes popular celebrations both near and far from the culture of Logroño.
- "Immersive" in Esdir / Clara Alonso, Marta Basterra and Mikel Aguerrea
It invites both to explore the environment from a different point of view and to participate in the transmission of new ideas.
- "To the table!" / Ander López and Sarai Olabarrieta
It is a place for all kinds of picturesque situations. The table straddles several of the city's urban fabrics and conquers the street to attract passers-by.
- "Shadows" in Plaza del Ayuntamiento / Pawel Grobelny
A functional as well as an artistic gesture that silently adheres to the existing architecture to make it a spatial and functional complement to the Town Hall square.
- "Sands" in Felipe VI Park / Konstantin Grcic
Three circular structures that invite people of all ages to participate in a collective activity.
- "Dark Sky" in Paseo del Espolón / Matali Crasset
It simulates a recently landed owl that will turn the Paseo del Espolón into an intergenerational space in dialogue with the Concha del Espolón.
- "We surprised them with beautiful flowers" in La Rosaleda - Paseo del Espolón / Tableau
Inspired by the classic form of the romantic park arch: how it is used and what it symbolizes by inviting people into a kind of hybrid, parasitic structure that grows over the existing park.
- "Intersection" in Gran vía / Germane Barnes
A playscape that invites visitors to relate to the city as a theatre. Its name is generated by three 9m diameter circles that converge to create a large landscape.
- "Hiber Space" in the floodplain of the River Ebro / Rintala Eggertsson Architects
Enjoying the shade under the trees and contemplating the flow of the river while the sun's spots run along the walls of the pavilion. It invites you to observe the everyday beauty and the simple reality that surrounds us.
- "Half Empty Full Moon" in Monte Cantabria / Piovenefabi
Mount Cantabria as a destination for nordic walkers, tourists, pilgrims, car drifters, bikers and ravers. With a simple act it formalises this destination, giving it the form of a shared sloping platform.
- "The archetype of the house" in Viña Lanciano and Quinta do Seixo / Collective X
This space seeks to create a reflective and contemplative atmosphere regarding the contact between man and nature by creating a series of modules where the visitor can contemplate the environment.
- "100 Chairs and 3 Urban Lounges" in Bulevar Avenida de la Paz / Izaskun Chinchilla
An open process developed during 2022 that culminates in the festival, through the movement of chairs and lounges citizens contribute to the delimitation of the city's low emission area.
At the same time, three workshops seek to deepen and broaden approaches to new contexts: low-emission areas or the use of cars in the city, with the intervention of Izaskun Chinchilla, and the importance of water and its consumption in urban spaces with Pool is Cool and Dallas.
In addition, the cycle "La Mirada de..." opens a window to the conversation with the authors of the interventions: Konstantin Gcric, Matali Crasset, Associates Architecture, Piovenefabi, Tableau, and Antonio Yemail.
As if that weren't enough, there are two exhibitions that aim to showcase the most innovative practice. On this occasion, Inventaires #3, a selection of projects from Wallonia-Brussels covering individual and collective housing, workspaces, social installations, and public spaces in the Courtyard of the Museum of La Rioja; and the exhibition of the Concéntrico 08 Competitions, which brings together the winning and finalist projects of the international open calls at the festival.
Do you want to know in detail everything that will happen in Concéntrico 2022? In the following link, you can find out the daily schedule. Enjoy!
