The renowned festival of ephemeral architecture and the city, Concéntrico, is gearing up for its eleventh edition, which, as every year, will take place in the city of Logroño. In 2025, the event will be held from June 19 to 24, featuring a program that includes various activities, conferences, and tours aimed at reflecting on public space, cities, and the ways we intervene in and interact with them.
How do inflatable structures behave in public spaces? What relationships or connections can they establish among people? From the perspective of Conjuntos Empáticos, inflatable structures act as organisms that engage passersby through their lightness, materiality, and element of surprise, ensuring sensory experiences in various environments and public spaces. These structures can accommodate everything from collective interventions to moments of leisure, encouraging social interaction and creating atmospheres that dissociate the scale of the city from the domestic space.
The city of Barcelona and the region are preparing to host Manifesta, the European nomadic biennial of art, architecture, and urbanism, which will celebrate its 15th edition on September 8, 2024. The event will take place in twelve cities over twelve weeks, where an extensive list of participants will materialize projects aimed at reimagining the future through art and architecture.
The first edition of Manifesta took place in Rotterdam in 1996. Over its 14 previous editions across 25 years, it has visited various European cities such as Luxembourg, Ljubljana, Frankfurt, San Sebastián, Trentino-South Tyrol, Murcia, Genk, Saint Petersburg, Zurich, Palermo, Marseille, and Pristina. One of the main pillars of Manifesta is based on critical urban research, promoting the construction of communities and cultural programs with a local identity that act as agents of change. While the nomadic character is a hallmark of the event, each city works with local artistic communities, citizens, and organizations to carry out projects that address issues inherent to the location.
Alsar Atelier, led by Alejandro Saldarriaga, is an architecture and design studio based in Boston and Bogotá. Their practice focuses on the planning and creation of public facilities with an emphasis on social benefit, as well as small-scale residential projects. The studio employs a design approach that prioritizes the use of sustainable materials, cost-effective strategies, and active community collaboration.
For these reasons, Alsar Atelier was selected by ArchDaily as one of the best new architecture practices of 2023. Below, we bring you an interview with Alejandro Saldarriaga to get a closer look at his inspirations, working processes, and future projects.
The ninth edition of Concéntrico, the international festival of architecture and design in Logroño, was inaugurated on April 27th to once again promote dialogue between the city, heritage, and contemporary architecture. Until May 2nd, citizens will have the opportunity to rediscover their urban environment alongside the work of more than 60 professionals from 15 different nationalities who have proposed an extensive program with 21 interventions, meetings, and activities.
From April 20 to 30, the second edition of the Model: Festival d'Arquitectures de Barcelona took place, debuting a new theme, Radical Empathy, and a new location, the surroundings of the new Parque de las Glorias. This year, managed by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, the event turned the city into a laboratory of experimentation and dissemination of architectural and urban thought, providing an opportunity to rethink new models and new imaginations of the city.
During the 10 days of the festival, 5 temporary installations were presented as a tool to build a more sustainable, fraternal, and fair city. Among the proposals, we could find a breastfeeding area designed by Equal Saree, the roof of a parking lot transformed into a mushroom structure by Harrison Atelier, and a surface that provides information about the benefits and disadvantages of the city's air created by Daryan Knoblauch, among others. At the same time, a series of 4 digital architectures and augmented realities were added, incorporating new experiences and technologies.
