Subterranea

Subterránea is a site-specific architectural intervention developed in 2019 for the Concéntrico 05 International Architecture and Design Festival in Logroño, Spain. The project, led by the studio, acts as a critical lens through which the hidden "vital organs" of the city are made visible. By focusing on the subterranean networks that facilitate urban life—water, electricity, and telecommunications—the design team sought to challenge the public's perception of the built environment, shifting attention from the surface aesthetics to the functional guts that sustain our daily existence.

The conceptual core of Subterránea lies in the physical manifestation of the invisible. The studio occupied a plaza in the historic center of Logroño, installing a series of large-scale sculptural elements that mimic the geometry and materiality of underground utility pipes. These "architectural prosthetics" were designed to appear as if they were bursting through the pavement, revealing a segment of the city's complex metabolism. The team aimed to create a moment of "spatial friction," where the industrial reality of the subsoil interrupts the traditional pedestrian experience, forcing a dialogue between the citizen and the infrastructure.

Technically, the installation was a masterclass in the creative reuse of standardized industrial materials. The design team utilized high-diameter concrete sewage pipes and corrugated electrical conduits, materials typically destined for burial. By elevating these heavy, rugged components to the status of a monument, the studio highlighted their inherent formal beauty and structural honesty. The assembly followed a "pro-cycling" logic, where the components were rented or borrowed from local suppliers and returned to the industrial cycle after the festival, ensuring a zero-waste intervention. The studio's intervention didn't just display the pipes; it invited people to touch, sit, and move through them, transforming a cold technical element into a playful social catalyst.

As a significant milestone in the studio’s research on urban metabolism, Subterránea demonstrates the team's ability to activate public space through the deconstruction of industrial norms. The project received widespread recognition for its ability to bridge the gap between civil engineering and poetic architectural gesture. By stripping away the urban "skin," the studio provided a tool for collective awareness, reminding the inhabitants of Logroño that the city is not just a collection of buildings, but a living, breathing technical organism.