City Ideas (Ideas de Ciudad) is a laboratory for research, dissemination and debate on the spatial and social transformations of the contemporary city. The aim is to create a city laboratory, an open research platform geared towards exploring the future of cities as spaces for culture and the generation of new social, technological and innovation paradigms.

The seventh conference of the cycle is that of Javier Peña, director of CONCÉNTRICO, a festival of design and architecture in the public space in which he proposes the transformation of the urban environment through culture, taking as a case study the cultural renewal of the city of Logroño. Peña shares a question with the public: how do we relate to the urban environments in which we live?

Javier Peña Ibáñez (1985, Logroño), an architect with a studio in Madrid, is also a curator, researcher, teacher and a consultant in such fields as architecture, design and cities. His activity focuses on directing, curating and disseminating cultural projects.

He has directed CONCÉNTRICO, the International Festival of Architecture and Design of Logroño, since 2015, and he co-directs and promotes the Lovisual cycle of programmes, dividing his time between these activities and teaching at the Francisco de Vitoria University not to mention other projects that he carries out in the context of architecture and cities: directing the documentary Turning Point (Punto de Inflexión) for the Arquia Foundation in 2020; organising round tables on the Law of Architecture and Quality in the Built Environment (PECA) of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urbana Agenda in 2020; the urban curatorship of the La Forêt Monumentale Biennale for the Métropole Rouen Normandie - France - in 2019; the Experimenta Pontevedra Urban Design Festival organised by the Pontevedra Town Council in 2018; Relevant Practices; the 6th Arquia/Proxima Festival in coordination with the Arquia Foundation in 2018; or the architecture programme of the Biennial of Contemporary Art of Maia - Portugal - in 2019.

https://javierpenaibanez.com/

“It is important to focus on the city, to turn it into a space for research and innovation through culture”.