Concéntrico 2023: Logroño's Architecture and Design Festival Opens with 21 Installations and Exhibitions

Written by Fabian Dejtiar | Translated by Antonia Piñeiro
Published on May 09, 2023

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.

Organized by the Fundación Cultural de los Arquitectos de La Rioja together with Javier Peña Ibáñez, and in collaboration with the City of Logroño, the Government of La Rioja, Garnica, and Bodegas LAN, Concéntrico has the support of more than 30 local, regional, national and international institutions, entities and companies. In its eight editions, more than 100 urban interventions by national and international teams of architects and designers came together, experimenting with new fields of environmental design.

During this 2023 edition, the invited school is the Escuela Superior de Diseño de La Rioja, and among the invited teams are Camille Walala, known for her large-scale interventions using color as a resource in public spaces; Studio Ossidiana, led by Giovanni Bellotti and Alessandra Covini, which explores innovative, poetic and suggestive approaches through buildings, materials, objects, and installations; Didier Fiúza Faustino, artist-architect and director of Mésarchitecture studio, whose work investigates the relationship between the body and space through installations, sculptures, stage designs, films, editorial projects, temporary architecture, and built works; among many others.

Check out below the complete list of installations and invited teams.

Pavilions of Call Winners

PUL — Logroño Urban Swimming Pool / meii estudio + Clara Torregrosa, Gabriel Fco. Millán
Location: Escuelas Trevijano Square

Seeks versatility, spontaneity, and free appropriation of its interior space. Located in the plaza of the Escuelas Trevijano, it aims to delimit a portion of the square by creating a new public space that is comfortable and used for leisure and care. Being mountable and dismountable and also easy to transport, PUL presents several states that can vary depending on how users appropriate it and the activities they carry out. Its objective is to transfer home to the exterior public space, blurring the boundaries between private housing and collective space, and turning care and comfort into something shared.

An Elevated Table in the Landscape / Jennyfher Alvarado, Alvaro Gonzalez
Location: Lanciano Vineyard

It is presented as a machine to generate experiences and encourage a bond with the landscape. The proposal is a subtle intervention that is also a landscape intervention, with a red carpet that extends and functions as a guide and introduction. This element allows you to move from the landscape to a domestic space while, behind the scenes, an elevated table appears where visitors can share a sensory experience creating bonds with the context.

Bayan Urban / Daniel Hambly
Location: Felipe VI Park

Concéntrico 2023: Logroño's Architecture and Design Festival Opens with 21 Installations and Exhibitions - Image 43 of 44 — Fotografía: Josema Cutillas. Image Cortesía de Concéntrico 2023

It takes advantage of the location as an amphitheater and transport hub through the layers of infrastructure located below and around the stage. The instrument is designed for two people, whose interaction brings the proposal to life and where with just working together it will be possible to hear the music of the city. The project becomes a declaration of peace and mutual understanding, seeking to make known the power of music to unite people and constitute itself as a means for the celebration of melodies and rhythms of a specific site.