Las columnas misteriosas

EBBA Architects
Plaza de San Ana – Concéntrico 05

The simple act of placing a column in a space can transform the use and understanding of the city. Logroño is well known for its unique streets and patios that create a sense of urban rooms at different scales. The column, as a device, gives opportunity for redefining and re-activating the patios by its inhabitants. These columns – known as “Las Columns Misteriosas” – can be rearranged and will allow the activation of the Plaza of Santa Ana throughout the day. As a simple gesture, the columns can be reorganised to create new spatial configurations, and at night they can transform into light beacons to give the square a new life and a totally different experience in the city.

The Story of the column – Intervention for public and urban activation

1. The public square is a place for gathering and social acts that help to give Logroño its identity. In an architectural sense its a space as an urban room, like at the Town Hall.

2. Defining space: The column is a simple device that helps to mark an entrance or threshold between different spaces, including how to move through them.

3. Enclosing space: The column works to make a “room” by defining the limits to the space and creating an edge.

4. Anchoring a space: A column helps to anchor a place and allows movement to happen around it.

The Story: As you enter the square a series of tall columns mark a new path and transform the feel of the patio…

…to help interact with the colonnades and covered thresholds in a different way.

The columns give the square a human scale that draws on the intimacy of the patio and frames the city…

…in unique ways that plays on the character of the rhythm of Logroño’s streets and buildings.

The new columns are a direct reference to the columns already existing in the patio and the city…

…but they take on a new significance, and through the repetitive form, give the existing columns more importance.

These “devices” act as a way of giving the patio a more rational feel within a somewhat cluttered environment…

…to allow opportunities for a renewed image of the street and to highlight the importance of the column.

Activating the Square by day & night

The placement of 10 columns within the patio become places for new rituals and celebrations. They act as small monuments that can help to transform the city.  As well as marking the square they can be re-organised to further emphasise the inside-outside qualities of the patio. At night the columns transform to create a “farola” of light to activate the space. The cast light from within the columns makes a totally new way of experiencing the patios. The proposal suggests ways of activating the patio during the day and also at night as a simple gesture to the city.