Concéntrico, Logroño's International Architecture and Design Festival, has announced the winning proposals for their three open competitions in three locations in the historic center of Logroño, in Spain.
This edition of the competitions sought to create a Pavilion in the Plaza de Escuelas Trevijano and two interventions, one in the River Ebro walk and the other in Viña Lanciano by Bodegas LAN.
Overall, 630 projects from more than 50 countries were submitted for the three competitions combined. The jury was comprised of Anna & Eugeni Bach, architects, and participants in Concéntrico 06; Ángel Carrero, President of the La Rioja Cultural Foundation of Architects and dean of the La Rioja Official Association of Architects; Rebeca Castellano, Visual Arts and Humanities Coordinator at the Goethe- Institut Madrid; Aurora León, Professor at the Escuela Superior de Diseño de La Rioja and participant in Concéntrico 01; Amaya Cebrián, Marketing Director of Bodegas LAN; and Javier Peña, Director of the Festival.
Find out more about the winning projects:
Pavilion in the Plaza de Escuelas Trevijano: Concéntrico Pavilion (Pabellón Concéntrico)
Authors: sauermartins (Cássio Sauer, Elisa T. Martins) + Mauricio Méndez.
Location: Brazil, Bolivia
Project description: The proposal encourages everyone to reflect on the site, the urbane, the city, and on the very specific and challenging moment we are living in. It recognizes the square, the public facilities it holds as well as its sculpture and proposes an intervention related to this specific context.
To do this, it introduces geometric shapes, two pieces that complement each other: a bar and a circle. The circle appears as a meeting point, with a tree in the center. This circular element does not touch the ground, but rises and floats above the square. The bar intercepts and supports the circular structure, generating an opening that will serve as a large vertical surface for exhibitions and Festival signage. At the same time, the linear plan of the bar produces a backdrop for the 'Sculpture of the Walkers' in Logroño. Its size will allow it to welcome and receive the people that come to the tours, as well as the activities that are held at that point. A manifestation of duality between instability and balance, the proposal highlights the contemporary and the historical; the wall that limits and the circle that receives; the space that is both interior and exterior; the open and the enclosed.
The members of the jury have picked Concéntrico Pavilion as the winning project for the following reasons:
The project has been selected for its representative character, proposing a new dialogue between the existing elements in the Plaza Escuelas Trevijano. Its architecture, with a singular geometry, responds to the use of the pavilion as a landmark of the festival. Its implantation in the location is relevant, with a global strategy in which the idea of balance, tension and its way of articulating with the context stand out.
Intervention at Paseo del Ebro: Contemplation of a Limit (La Contemplación de un límite)
Authors: Chávarri Estudio (Pedro Chávarri, Esteban Gigoux, Tomás Sherwin)
Location: Chile
Project description: The proposal serves as a tribute to the limit, a term defined as a border, the end of something and the beginning of something else, an imaginary line that separates two elements. A riverbank can also be perceived as a limit, determined by the width of the water channel; an abstract border, that takes on a thickness and a distance between both shores. The thickness of the river invites the public to question what happens in between and how the other bank is created. In fact, the empty space between the House of Sciences and the bank of the river with its 55 meters in length and 6 in width (180 x 20 feet), is precisely the ideal place to contemplate this imaginary line. A seating is created in that area, with a beach umbrella that will invite passersby to stop, go up and change their perception of the environment while contemplating the abstract boundary between the two banks of the Ebro river.
The members of the jury have picked Contemplation of a Limit as the winning project for the following reasons:
The project has been selected for its iconic and suggestive character that changes our usual perspective on the relationship between the river and the city. This small structure gains strength through repetition and by integrating the entire area of action, proposing to remain and refering us to the imaginary of the beach in the surroundings of the Ebro.
Intervention at Viña Lanciano: "Support Your Local Landscape"
Authors: Vivian Rotie, Pablo Saiz del Río
Location: Cuba, Spain
Project description: The project recreates a billboard looking at the remains of the Mantible Bridge, not only for its famous vines but also for the coexistence of a rich ecosystem of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and a variety of riverbank flora. The suggested idea raises a large carved stone first as an active part during the installation and second as an archaeological piece after the intervention. The creators appeal to the imaginary, to the spectacle, to communication campaigns and graphic escapism with an idea that claims the evocation of the landscape.
The members of the jury have picked Support Your Local Landscape as the winning project for the following reasons:
The project has been selected for its singularity and vindicative character in dialogue with the landscape. Its large scale, with great lightness in its formalization, incorporates a landmark perceptible from a distance that evokes and speaks of the context in which it is located.
Concentrico 07 will be held from 2 to 5 September 2021 in Logroño, Spain.
