Biennales, exhibitions, and architecture focused festivals provide a platform for opening debates, conducting research, and driving innovation, but they can also contribute to the incremental changes that shape the image and the character of a city. Through temporary installations and experiments, this type of events have the opportunity to open lines on inquiry into the quality of urban spaces, inviting visitors and residents to slow down, break away from their daily routine and interrogate their local environments. The effects might not be immediate, but by cumulating these impressions and moments of contemplation, architecture and design festivals can have a long-lasting impact on the cities that welcome them.
Staged stories on community and identity, ephemeral architecture showed that in 2022 it doesn't have to be permanent to be powerful. A direct and popped-up public installation can shift from preparation to action, reclaiming and defining what makes a community unique. Highlighting installations to acknowledge linguistic diversity in NYC, a giant table to celebrate culinary in Barcelona, and a large-scale net in Dubai to represent the local culture, among others, these initiatives seek to understand ways in which local and regional expressions can help cities to be more equal and diverse.
Globalization has connected the world boundaryless. While it has also made information more accessible, it has led to homogeneity and identity crisis at melding unique societies and cultural expressions. Cultural differences are undeniable as globalization grows. Hence, as architecture produces common living standards, it can also highlight singularities. Festivals, installations, and pavilions, 2022 was the year to express local memories to be recognized and celebrated, setting Community and identity as central topics in ephemeral architecture throughout the year.
As expressed by 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale curator and architect Leslie Lokko, "after two of the most difficult and divisive years in living memory, architects have a unique opportunity to show the world what we do best: put forward ambitious and creative ideas that help us imagine a more equitable and optimistic future in common."
From Venice's approach to Africa as the lab for the future to Seoul's road to its next 100 years as a megapolis; from Chicago's art-meets-architecture-meets-civic-participation to Sharjah's "beauty of impermanence" in the Global South motto, 2023 will witness a series of architectural events trying to embody those forward ambitious and creative ideas, as explained by Lokko.
Concéntrico 09, International Architecture and Design Festival of Logroño, proposes to reflect on the urban environment and the city through architecture and design proposals in different formats. The new edition will be held from 27 April to 2 May 2023.
After two years of disrupted cycles of architecture events, due to the pandemic, 2022 has been witnessing a resurgence: biennials, triennials, design weeks, and festivals are back in the picture, with bigger interrogations and larger thematic approaches, aligned with the challenges of the world.
Relevant today more than ever, these happenings scattered around the globe are tackling climate-related issues, urban problems, as well as concerns engendered by covid-19 such as resilience, models of living, future of design, and the unknown.
Every year, the Concéntrico festival in Logroño, Spain, brings together architects and designers from all over the world with the hope of employing creativity to create a better city. During this year's event, a few overarching themes could be observed as critical points of interest for the participating architects and designers. Many urban installations hoped to help citizens rediscover places of interest in their city and beyond, while others challenged the often-fixed ideas of what a home can and should look and function. Many designers saw opportunities in the concept of unstructured play, as the exploratory activity can activate unused public spaces and engage people of all ages.
Since 2015, the Concéntrico festival has presented 91 installations and pavilions during its seven editions. The festival is primarily known for bringing together emerging architects and designers who are given the freedom to experiment with new fields of environmental design. The festival is organized by the Cultural Foundation of the Architects of La Rioja together with Javier Peña Ibáñez, promoter of the initiative, in collaboration with the Logroño City Council, the Government of La Rioja, Garnica and Bodegas LAN, and 30 other supporting institutions.
"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.
Una Mesa / AAA (Alejandro Lobo, Elías Martínez Ojeda, Federico Rodríguez). Image Cortesía de Concéntrico 08
From the 1st to the 6th of September 2022, the eighth edition of the International Architecture and Design Festival of Logroño, called Concéntrico, will take place, which invites us once a year to reflect on the urban environment and the city. Through installations, workshops, exhibitions, meetings and activities, it offers the opportunity to explore the city thinking about new collective uses that strengthen the character of community within public spaces.
Concéntrico 08, Logroño’s International Architecture and Design Festival, will be held in the Spanish city from 1 to 6 September 2022. The eighth edition of the festival grows in two days to propose new collective uses that strengthen the idea of community in public space.
Today, a new generation of architects is trying to tackle the challenges of contemporary society while navigating different hurdles within the profession. Emerging architects are redefining the values and focus of design in response to the various issues facing the contemporary built environment, such as sustainability, affordability and equity. At the same time, new practices are operating a within rapidly changing field in which the architect's role is increasingly more ambiguous. The following explores the issues faced by young architects in their practice, as well as what they see as being architecture's most significant challenges, that inherently shape their work in a contrasting way to that of their older peers.
The 7th edition of the International Architecture and Design Festival Concéntrico proposed new readings of public space through a series of temporary installations that re-imagined various places throughout the Spanish city of Logroño. Emerging architecture practices and artists from around the world shared their perspectives on the public realm and the spaces of social interaction by exploring various themes and experimenting with new ways of understanding urban spaces.
St. Bartholomew hut by Paradigma Ariadné. Image Courtesy of Concéntrico
The International Architecture and Design Festival Concéntrico, now at its 7th edition, prompts an exploration of the urban environment through temporary installations inhabiting the public spaces of the city of Logroño, Spain. From September 2nd to 5th, the festival brings together an array of emerging architects and artists from all over the world to share their perspectives on urban spaces and communities.
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.
Videos
Open Calls: Concéntrico 05, International Architecture and Design Festival. Logroño / La Rioja / Spain
Concéntrico 05, the Logroño International Festival of Architecture and Design, seeks to reflect on the urban environment and the city through different formats of architectural and design projects. The next edition will take place on 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30 April and 1 May 2019.
Concéntrico is an International Festival of Architecture and Design that reflects on the revitalization of devalued spaces in Logroño, Spain. Its latest edition, Concéntrico 04, was held between April 27 and May 1, 2018, in Logroño's Historical Center. The festival invites you to travel the city through installations, exhibitions, meetings, activities, and performances that create a connection between streets, venues, courtyards and hidden spaces that usually go unnoticed from day-to-day. David Marchetti's intervention "Otravisión" aims to signal the plaza by providing passers-by the opportunity to see the area from an entirely new and unpredicted point of view.
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