My Visit to the Architecture Festival in Logroño - Spain

Hi friends. I wanted to tell you about an international architecture festival called Concéntrico in Logroño that I attended last month. I had wanted to come here for a very long time because the question of how an international event can be created in a city of only 150 thousand people has always interested me greatly. The distinguishing feature of this format is that the city itself turns into an exhibition space. There are more than 20 installations in different spots. And among those who made these installations are world famous international experts.

Object number one was called Circo, meaning Circus. This structure bears the signature of the Chilean architect Smiljan Radić, who won the Pritzker Prize very recently. Therefore this is his first structure built with the title of Pritzker winner. And it is a very interesting structure because it resembles a circus tent, a chapiteau. In other words Smiljan took inspiration from those traveling, humble circuses touring Chile.

This allows us to look at architecture not as a monumental structure or construction, but as a temporary action. Meaning people come to an empty land, quickly set it up, the inside is fun and the outside looks quite charming. In any case even this silhouette already creates a festive atmosphere. Then they quickly pack up and leave.

The interesting thing is that to set up this structure, right in the center of Logroño, they had found a piece of empty land that is probably normally never used. Great architects of the world can show themselves in this way too. I think this definitely deserves atention. Overall this idea of temporary architecture is very important in terms of urbanism and for the city to live every day, not just on gala days.

In the market square right across from the Santa María de la Redonda Cathedral, an installation named Architecture as Ritual was set up. This is a collaboration between the Central project and photographer Maxime Delvaux. It consists of a colorful tower and what is more, the tower is painted in the institutional colors of the city of Logroño. It was covered with a heap of sand they called the Sand Dune. As a result of gradual interactions, especially with the touches of children and sometimes adults, this tower gets undressed, revealed and becomes even more visible and impressive.

Benches referring to the walls surrounding Logroño have been placed around it. The main idea here is that architecture can be a temporary, fleeting structure that gathers people around it. Finally on San Juan day, this tower was going to be burned. And wish notes can be left inside this pole or tower.

The Arch of San Bernabé opens the way to the old city center of Logroño. Normall it is decorated with flowers and official parades start right from here and move toward the cathedral I just mentioned. As part of the festival they had decorated this arch with Saint Bernabé's skirt. This skirt represents the combination of two traditional colors of La Rioja dancers. Red color adorned with black motifs.

What is interesting is that this skirt was raised up during the day and lowered in the evening. The silhouette on the other hand, reminded us of a dancer turning toward us, opening all the pleats of her skirt and creating that festive atmosphere.

Right across from the skirt of Saint Bernabé, in Glorieta del Doctor Zubía Park, Zubía Laboratory was set up. So, who is this Zubía? Ildefonso Zubía is a pharmacist, botanist and naturalist who created a huge herbarium by collecting more than 4300 plant species growing in the Rioja region. Naturally great respect is paid to him here. The festival management also decided to transform this park into a research center rather than just a place to take a walk.

They set up two devices inside where you can examine things. The first one is a kaleidoscope. Through this scope you see the sky. By reaching for this special laboratory instrument, you can observe all shades of the sky from light blue to dark navy blue. Next to it stands a sort of microscope. Meaning there is a structure with colored and transparent lenses inside. Behind these you can again see the park and the environment, looking at this entire city picture through the eyes of a researcher. I think it is quite an interesting activity and can beautify any park. Look for naturalists in your cities and set up laboratories in your parks in their name.

The name of the next installation is A Soft Embassy. Why soft? Because it is a pavilion, a temporary structure, that changes shape almost every day. It is made of construction scaffolding or barricade elements and is redesigned a bit every day. Consequently, different events are held there every day. We were lucky, we happened to attend a Tempranillo wine tasting.

As you know Tempranillo is the main grape variety grown not only here, but especially in Rioja. And this place is literally a Tempranillo embassy because here tastings are held of Tempranillos produced in different regions outside Rioja. This pavilion aims to draw attention to five basic actions necessary for the revitalization of streets.

One more important detail. We all mostly know Tempranillo as red, but it turns out there is also white Tempranillo and it also deserves attention.

Although the Rioja Cultural Center is not included in the Concéntrico festival program, it is impossible not to visit here because it is a very interesting structure. It is a project that revitalizes almost a whole neighborhood in the historic center of Logroño. From the outside we see a three story bottle rack. The concrete is naturally made in the color of wine as a tribute to the Rioja region.

Inside there is a very bright, large atrium. Formwork marks and concrete painted in wine color again draw attention here. Various exhibitions are organized. There is a permanent exhibition located in the cellar. These places are literally cellars because in this part under the neighborhood, there used to be wine storage cellars.

On the upper floors there are various art exhibitions connected in some way with local culture and wine. I really liked the Cubism art exhibition from the collection of the Vivanco family. They are a well established winemaking family.

The second exhibition is the display of works from the first three editions of the Alto Award. This is a local, cross border award that brings together Spanish and French artists. The works of the winners of the first three seasons are exhibited here.

And there is another small exhibition by Juanma Martín. Very unusual mixed media art containing kinetic elements. The name of the exhibition is Until the Fire Swallows Us. Of course, this is a metaphorical expression because all these ceramics are naturally produced with fire, by baking. That is why fire swallowing us does not always mean destruction, sometimes it means creation.

Future FM decided to look at the function of the bridge from a new angle. The bridge connecting the two sides of the Ebro River now has a tower or rather a staircase. And this is a spot where time can be spent because the bridge is quite narrow. Meaning you either drive or walk, there is no place to stop. So they made such an additional structure that transforms this place into a viewing platform. They even call this a city living room. From this staircase, you can go directly down to the park stretching along the Ebro River.

Then we passed to the Logroño City Hall. The building itself arouses great interest architecturally because its architect is the famous Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1996. The building was constructed in the early 80s and became a symbol of the new, democratic Spain after the collapse of the Franco regime.

And here in the square, we saw that ongoing colonnaded gallery thanks to the installation called Resonance. This temporary intervention shows how this idea hidden in the building can be carried into the square and how it can interact with the people and pedestrians here. Unfortunately, the interaction cannot be very active because for some reason this entire installation is fenced off. Yet the authors had assumed that people would walk between these columns in the square and feel this connection between the ideas of the building and the ideas of the installation. So the idea is interesting but the execution contains some shortcomings.

The same can be said for the execution of the installation named Library Garden, which means library garden. It is located behind the Rafael Azcona Library. By the way Rafael Azcona is a famous Spanish screenwriter born in Logroño and local people are celebrating the centennial of his birth this year. The library is nice and Mr. Rafael is probably a great person, but the installation is debatable. Mention is made of a garden shed and a communal table, but in person, it looks as if it fell from the sky. Its description sounds more inspiring than the installation itself.

If you thought that the Concéntrico Architecture Festival consists only of installations, you are wrong. There is also a full fledged exhibition here in the traditional sense. Meaning by full fledged, I mean a small exhibition consisting of architectural projects. This does not always offer a visual feast, in fact almost never super flashy. You need to step inside, look, read and go deeper. Still, it is worth doing so, especially since the projects here are quite interesting and original.

And I would like to add a few words about a couple of installations. The first is the instalation named Dancing Pediments. I think this ide is noteworthy because its execution is very easy. We all encounter those blind side facades of buildings. Sometimes they decorate them with murals. This can of course be nice sometimes, but most of the time they remain just blind walls. Developers suggested using these for games. Here, one of these walls is designed as a basketball hoop, one as a soccer goal and the third as a rugby goal. It can be easily implemented and is a very useful idea, especially for overly densely built old neighborhoods with urbanization issues.

The other installation bears the name Temple for One Person. An installation made of marble and stone. The idea here is to create the temple as a place of retreat. Because the traditional temples we see today are usually places of grandeur, where even in a way humans are suppressed and made subject to that supreme divine power. The idea here is to create a temple where a human can be oneself. And this temple is one to one compatible with the human scale. I think this also deserves attention.

I enjoyed the day I spent at this festival. Still it is not an event you would fly from far away just for. This is rather a great excuse to combine a trip to that very beautiful Rioja region famous for its wines with a cultural program focused on architecture, design, partly urbanism and art.

I hope it was useful. At least now you can decide whether you should come here or not. See you on new trips.