Sergio Jimenez Foronda
Logroño, April 30 (EFE).- A large-scale strawberry, with a door that opens to the interior; a fountain with inflatable water figures; and yoga balls that simulate water molecules in a swimming pool are some of the 21 ephemeral architecture installations that interact in Logroño, showing this city as “a living organism that allows us to be in community.”
These works are part of the XIX International Festival of Architecture and Design of Logroño “Concéntrico”, in which more than 60 professionals from 15 countries participate until May 2.
One of the fundamental axes of Concéntrico is that it allows the establishment of different codes of relationship between the facilities and the people, which, in turn, makes it easier for it to “be united and be much more inclusive in the social development of Logroño”, he has indicated. to EFE its director, Javier Peña, also organizer of the festival, together with the Cultural Foundation of Architects of La Rioja.
Proof of this is, for example, “Strawberry”, by the architect Oana Stănescu, which represents the shape of a large-scale strawberry, from which emerges a door that opens to the interior.
THE ROLE OF MICROARCHITECTURE
This social development can be observed in the crowd of adults and children that takes place around the piece “Urban Fountain”, by the architecture studio Un Parell d’Arquitectes, consisting of a large scaffolding that supports various inflatable aquatic dolls that function as a water source.
The high temperatures of these days in the capital of La Rioja have fostered the curiosity of walkers for this piece, especially the little ones, towards an intervention that “vindicates the role of microarchitecture as configurator of public space and meeting place”. .
With these words, one of its creators, Eduard Callís, has described the “Urban Fountain” to EFE, who has explained that “one of the elements that most build public space are the fountains, but the fountains are not like the current ones, but at the moment when the one that, perhaps, the houses did not have water, but there were fountains”.
In the past, fountains “were the end point of a network for the collection, distribution and delivery of water to cities and, therefore, they were a symbol of urbanity”; as well as “a meeting place because people had to go to get water from the fountain, which was one of the everyday spaces in which to meet”.
“They were fountains that, as a symbol of this technical achievement, were lavish and decorated”, which is why this “Urban Fountain” is made up of inflatable toys that have been painted in a striking golden color, the creator of the piece has recounted. told.
AN OPEN AND PLAYFUL SPACE
A few meters from this sculpture you can interact, but in a different way, with the work “Camp, La Leçon de Rome”, by the Os Espacialistas collective, made up of four small rooms and basic geographical shapes.
These figures, similar to tents, are lined up next to each other and allow access to their monochrome interior, each with different elements to play with.
Another of the pieces that allows access to its interior is “Piscina Urbana de Logroño (PUL)”, developed by the MEII studio and the architects Clara Torregrosa and Gabriel Millán, which, instead of being filled with water, uses yoga balls blue to simulate water molecules.
One of the members of MEII, José María Mateo, has highlighted to EFE that “PUL” seeks to generate “an open, playful and freely appropriated space within a square, which was more of a walkway and with benches that were used to sit on, but You couldn’t do much more.”
This “urban pool” is made up of 38 wooden structures, each of which contains 3 yoga balls that, conceptually, would be water and “the good thing about these structures and tanks is that they can be emptied or filled according to its use”, he explained.
The installation evokes different situations, such as the pool that “is full and, when you’re inside it, it’s like a wall that, in some way, isolates you and frees you from outer space.”
In addition, there is the intermediate situation, in which the pool “is emptying and is more of play and randomness” and, finally, the third, in which “it is completely full of yoga balls, which occupy all the space on the floor of the installation”.
“This means that the movement of each of the users affects the other a bit because they are like water molecules that touch each other,” he described.