Concéntrico
Concéntrico: Urban Innovation Laboratory reflects on the first decade of the international Concéntrico festival of design and architecture in the city of Logroño, Spain, and some 150 projects and designs commissioned for it. The festival’s aim is to serve as a laboratory searching for creative new ways in using architecture and design to strengthen communities, and to support the dialogue between designers and citizens.
The book offers a unique meditation on the transformation of cities and the relevance of architecture and design in the 21st century. It introduces meaningful ways to address and engage with pressing urban issues—from identity and heritage to temporariness, collectivity, ecology, play, and domesticity—through the lens of selected Concéntrico commissions since 2014. Through lavishly illustrated essays, it features projects by 30 artists, architects, and designers from 14 countries. They are prefaced and held together by a conversation between the editors Javier Peña Ibáñez and Nick Axel, who speak about the festival’s context, evolution, and the knowledge it has produced since its first edition in 2014.
Text in English and Spanish.
Javier Peña Ibáñez is an architect based in Madrid and working as a curator, researcher, educator, and consultant in the fields of architecture, design, and urbanism. He is Founder and Director of Concéntrico, the International Festival of Design and Architecture in Logroño, Spain. Nick Axel is an architect, editor, educator, and curator. He is Deputy Editor of e-flux Architecture and Head of the Architectural Design department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam.