Concéntrico, an international festival held in Logroño, Spain, has evolved into an experimental and influential urban innovation laboratory over the past decade. Its upcoming publication, Concéntrico: Urban Innovation Laboratory, systematically compiles a decade of urban design practices and collective transformation achievements.
In current urban development, excessive planning and regulation have enhanced safety but stripped spaces of diverse vitality. Concéntrico takes temporary urban installations as its core carrier, breaking the conservative model of traditional urban projects. It emphasizes timeliness, speed, and experimentation, stimulating in-depth dialogues on urban development through context-specific spatial practices. Adhering to the concept that “the entire city is usable,” the festival has completed over 150 installation works in ten years, covering seven themes including identity, heritage preservation, ecology, and play. These works maintain professional criticism while allowing the public to intuitively experience and participate, embodying the architecture new trend of integrating professionalism with public engagement.
The core feature of the festival lies in its pursuit of “dual interpretation,” transforming rigorous design concepts into perceptible and usable urban experiences, and bridging the gap between professional ideas and daily life. Its operation process is highly flexible, embracing unpredictability and turning potential disruptions such as weather changes and logistical challenges into integral parts of creativity. It relies on citizens’ voluntary maintenance of works, fostering a unique atmosphere of community participation. In balancing risk and criticism, the festival ensures safety and feasibility through cooperation with architects, technicians, and local craftsmen, while upholding the project’s forward-looking nature and converting risks into shared collective experiences.
Though these temporary installations have a limited lifespan, they have created lasting impacts. Landmark works such as Lanza Atelier’s circular brick structure and Plastique Fantastique’s inflatable rings have reshaped the use of urban landmarks and public spaces, leaving profound collective memories.
Today, Concéntrico stands at a new turning point, planning to break the transient model and extend the innovative spirit of temporary installations to long-term projects such as “urban climate islands” to promote lasting urban transformation. Meanwhile, through international book tours, it aims to share its experience globally, advocating for more open, responsive, and engaging urban spaces. It proves that cities, as “process laboratories,” can continuously nurture new possibilities through well-designed experiments.
