Uylenspiegel’s car factory

Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop

Museo de La Rioja – Concéntrico 09

We have found this character Thyl Uylenspiegel, the folk hero, who may have been based on a historical person. The character’s surname, ‘Uylenspiegel’, may be translated literally to mean ’owl glass’ or ‘owl mirror’. Metaphorically speaking, this name has been interpreted to mean ‘wise reflection’. Considering that Uylenspiegel plays the part of the fool, he serves as a mirror by which society could judge itself.

In and exhibition in 2022 in Vienna, we have built Uylenspiegel’s workshop and we imagined that he is working there as a carpenter, making wooden furniture for a restaurant. We started to make little wooden cars from the leftovers of this exhibition in our own workshop in Budapest, Hungary. We would like to bring the story further by connecting this character to the making of these little wooden cars, as he is producing them in his factory.

We imagined that Uylenspiegel once read Fritz Schumacher’s book called „Small is Beautiful” where he wrote “I have no doubt that it is possible to give a new direction to technological development, a direction that shall lead it back to the real needs of man, and that also means: to the actual size of man. Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful.” As Uylenspiegel often did, he took the quote literally and therefore he have built a small factory for producing his little cars.

We would like to present this small building in Logrono, which also functions as a high table, where people can gather and children could play inside and all around this structure with the cars, as they celebrate the opening of this factory.

„The child’s own language is play. Compared to a small child, the environment is disproportionately, unconquerably, unknowably complex and large, but with the help of small, inanimate objects, it can master the things that grow above it. Even prehistoric man recognised this and gave him miniature copies of objects from the real world to play with (dolls, pots, horses). The miniature copies of things make the world less dangerous and tame it. Possession, cognition, happens through manipulation, imitation, repetitive play, learning. „ (Polcz Alaine, Világjáték)

Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop

Architecture uncomfortable workshop is a Budapest based architecture collective founded in 2012 by a group of young architects.

“Beside the planning we always try to make experiments in small case projects. One of the biggest motivators for us is the process of understanding contemporary vernacular architecture. Also, we are continuously looking for situations where comfort meets real human needs. While taking part in the production of objects and furniture, our idea of design has changed a lot over the years. Our main interest lies in visual simplicity, specifically in simple methods of building (e.g. tools), which manifest themselves in built objects. The process of constructing will have an impact on the final object, which –  as we believe –  is much more important. Through design we search for the comfort situation: For us, the main aspect of architectural design is not form or function but the situation of balance between a person and their environment. This balance is our definition of architecture. Everything else is just a consequence of it.”

With the collaboration of

Also in Concéntrico 09

Cantiere Aperto
Frantoio Sociale + Hypereden
Event
Paseo del Espolón
Concéntrico 09
Silk Pavilion
Paloma Cañizares
Intervention
Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de La Rioja
Concéntrico 09
Tensegrity Späti
Barkow Leibinger
Intervention
Entorno Iglesia de Santiago
Concéntrico 09
Uylenspiegel’s car factory
Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop
Intervention
Museo de La Rioja
Concéntrico 09
Throwing shade
Camille Walala
Intervention
Plaza Sin Nombre
Concéntrico 09
Stone Wall Stand In
Design With Company
Intervention
Plaza del Revellín
Concéntrico 09
Siluroño
Pool is Cool + Dallas
Intervention
Parque del Ebro
Concéntrico 09
The Garden of Intersections
Studio Ossidiana
Intervention
Plaza de San Bartolomé
Concéntrico 09
Centre Court
Marc Morro
Intervention
Ayuntamiento de Logroño
Concéntrico 09
Glorieta Birdhouses
Hollman Reuter Sandman
Intervention
Glorieta del Doctor Zubía
Concéntrico 09
Bayan Urban
Daniel Hambly
Intervention
Parque Felipe VI
Concéntrico 09
Concentrico 09 in Madrid
Intervention
Nuevos Ministerios
Concéntrico 09
Me Como el Mundo
Didier Fiúza Faustino
Intervention
Paseo del Espolón
Concéntrico 09
Supergráfica
ESDIR
Intervention
Escuela Superior de Diseño de La Rioja
Concéntrico 09
La Rebelión del Crazy Army
Recetas Urbanas
Intervention
IES Batalla de Clavijo
Concéntrico 09
An Elevated Table in the Landscape
Jennyfher Alvarado, Álvaro Gonzalez
Intervention
Viña Lanciano
Concéntrico 09
The mobile library of women
catalystas collective
Event
Biblioteca Rafael Azcona
Concéntrico 09
Fresa
Oana Stănescu
Intervention
Plaza de Santa Ana
Concéntrico 09
PUL
MEII Estudio + Clara Torregrosa y Gabriel Fco. Millán
Intervention
Plaza Escuelas Trevijano
Concéntrico 09
Logomaquias
Carlos Herraiz + Vanesa Peña Alarcón
Event
Paseo del Espolón
Concéntrico 09