concéntrico: urban climate island

Concéntrico, in its aim to initiate new formats that respond to urban transformations, presents a call for proposals with Logroño City Council and LIF 2002, Logroño Integración del Ferrocarril, within the framework of the strategic plan to face heat waves in the city of Logroño. The aim of this call is to create a permanent urban climate island, which will be located around the lake in the Felipe VI Park on the terracing that forms a hexagonal square.

In recent decades, climate change has generated significant impacts on natural and socio-economic systems, with the emission of greenhouse gases, especially carbon-based gases, being the main cause. In southern Europe, an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts and floods, is anticipated. Faced with this situation, it is essential to implement adaptation actions to mitigate these effects, especially in cities, where phenomena such as climate islands, areas that experience significantly higher temperatures than their surroundings, are manifested.

Logroño, like other medium-sized cities in southern Europe, will face an increase in heat waves and a rise in the average annual temperature. A heat wave in Logroño is defined as a period when the maximum temperature exceeds 34.5 degrees Celsius and minimum temperatures of at least 20 degrees Celsius are recorded for three consecutive days. To counteract this trend, solutions based on technology and nature are proposed, such as the creation of climate islands, decarbonisation and circular economy, in line with the Zero Emissions and Circularity Directives of the European Union.

The project seeks to generate a space of thermal comfort that proposes a design that can have structures or shaded areas, tree planting, with spaces of soft natural soil, permeable to water, equipped with benches, in order to reduce the temperature at specific points. The two-phase competition includes the design and implementation of the climatic island. The competition organisers will be responsible for the production and construction of the winning proposal in coordination with the selected team.

The participation, which has a digital delivery format, is open to an international scope:

• Phase 1 is open to architectural practices until 29 November and requires the submission of an A2 summary panel.

• Phase 2 has an allocation of €1,500 per team for 4 finalists, the fee for the winning project will be €10,000.

The Urban Climate Island selected in the call will have an implementation budget of €80,000

The aim of this call for proposals is to create a permanent urban climatic island, a space of thermal comfort that proposes a design with structures or umbraculums, tree planting, with spaces of soft natural soil, permeable to water, equipped with benches, in order to reduce the temperature at certain points.