Design and architecture enhance life in cities

We spoke with the director of the Spanish Concéntrico festival, which also features products from mmcité. The small town of Logroño transforms for the tenth time, filling its streets with dozens of projects. Javier revealed to us that Concéntrico influences the changes taking place in the public space of Logroño. He also believes that design and architecture are powerful tools for improving life in cities. We wish you enjoyable reading and look forward to seeing you on the streets of Logroño from April 25th to May 1st.

Javier, what do you think the streets will look like in ten years?

I think it would be a street where we can think with time as a determining factor. That is what we have achieved in Concéntrico since 2015, and I believe it could be applied to the design of the city and public space.

How did you get involved in organizing the Concéntrico festival?

Concéntrico is a very personal project, based on the interest I have always had in studying the city and proposing a greater connection between its inhabitants and the physical environment in which they live. Ultimately, architecture and design are powerful tools to improve our community life and foster more connected and inclusive societies. That's the starting point of the entire project, and the curatorship that I've been proposing year after year aims to search for and deepen this idea.

"Streets in ten years" is a program of the festival, which also includes mmcité. As part of the international Open Call, you selected the Scenius 26003 project, which covers Porto Academy, led by Daryn Knoblauch. What is this project about?

It's a way to celebrate our reflections that we constantly build with each edition. I see this project as an opportunity to work with strategic thinking, where processes are innovative. We involve people in it, collect their opinions, and together evaluate the changes that occur. We primarily think long-term, and it will continue for the next 10 years.

So, it's not a coincidence that you are introducing it for the first time this year?

It's a way to draw a clear line under many problems and approaches that we have addressed with the city in the past. We are different from what we were 10 years ago, which is why we also want to choose a different approach. By sharing our insights with the public, which we gain through organizing the festival and our presence in public space, we can draw new perspectives on the street, the city, and its changes.

Do you think sharing your knowledge can contribute to shaping the cities of the future?

Yes, we firmly believe that all cities can learn from each other, and Logroño has been a determining factor in this. We have reached a maturity in the project that allows us to make the most of the proposals we make and the changes we suggest.

How do you perceive the role of festivals like Concéntrico in supporting innovation and dialogue in the field of design and architecture?

I believe their role is fundamental. They are the areas of innovation and creation for the desired future. There is no tension from an immediate need for change – we propose challenges and shift the city because we want to, not because we have to. In our daily work, we are so overwhelmed that we can't even imagine the emergence of such ideas, but we can afford them when organizing festivals.

What program should we not miss during Concéntrico?

We will celebrate more than ever, debating, talking, and also dancing. Don't miss anything from April 25th to May 1st because the city will be at our fingertips. Concéntrico presents an extensive program with 21 interventions, meetings, and activities involving more than 100 professionals from 20 different nationalities: projects that propose to renaturalize public spaces, reinterpret methods of traditional and vernacular architecture to improve the thermal comfort of cities, reuse materials from industry or textiles from previous editions with a new use, celebrate in a shared way on a bench that invites movement or recover the idea of housing under the gaze of an equestrian statue, all in a mixture that leads us to imagine the everyday from the real to the unreal.