Over the past week several beguiling objects have appeared across Logroño in northern Spain. An enormous, enclosed ball pit; huge, free-standing accordions; colourful sandboxes; an improvised tennis court in the middle of the City Hall square – all were part of Concéntrico, a weeklong festival of architecture and design that wrapped up yesterday. And, as it has done since 2015, the event had the town talking about the use of public space.
“Our intention isn’t to transform the entire city but to de-stigmatise areas that have fallen into disrepair,” says Javier Peña Ibáñez, who founded the event in 2015. It’s a comment that hints at both Ibáñez’s ambitions for Concéntrico and what sets it apart from other festivals: a commitment to using these short-term installations to bring about permanent change. Around the city, you’ll spot the legacies of past editions – proof that temporary interventions can have a lasting effect. In 2021, Berlin-based design collective 44flavours converted a neglected inner-city lot into a polychromatic skate park. Once an informal car park, it was re-baptised Plaza de la Villanueva and transformed into a place for recreation and conversation. This year, a collection of perforated bird and bat boxes, designed by Finnish studio Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects and installed before the event’s official launch, have made people flock to a neglected park that adjoins a recently renovated high school. The return of wildlife has made it feel safer and more welcoming.
“We’re always seeking to ensure that every space retains the magic of its temporary rebirth once the exhibition ends,” says Ibáñez, who negotiates all of the design projects with city authorities while lamenting their tendency to submit streets and squares to endless facelifts. “[As communities], we need to agree on the fundamentals of urbanism. Re-instilling a more human, domestic scale to the public arena helps us to integrate habits that are linked more closely to the home, making public space feel more intimate and personal.”
The emerging spirit of negotiation and consensus-seeking has resulted in people asking more poignant questions about their surroundings. “Humanising public spaces creates a more caring mindset,” says Ibáñez. In Logroño, it’s planting the seeds of a more playful, connected community too.
Liam Aldous is Monocle’s Madrid correspondent. For more on Concéntrico, pick up a copy of our dedicated design newspaper.