Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Josema Cutillas.
Crop Top is a series of partial rooms that encourage visitors to circulate in the round to continually crop their views of each other and the surrounding square. Composed of a circular roof and a set of vertical surfaces that range in widths from walls to columns, the project spatializes the literal technique of cropping as an act of framing views both around and above, between and through. Crop tops serve to both ration and highlight material. Conflating notions of visual framing with construction framing, it is fabricated using a partial framing system, where sheets (and their offcuts), rather than dimensional lumber, minimize material use for maximum effect. With its incomplete roof cladding, Crop Top is a nod to the trending (again) crop top shirt, a garment that uses subtraction to focus attention on the missing middle.
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Josema Cutillas.
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Josema Cutillas.
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Josema Cutillas.
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Josema Cutillas.
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Josema Cutillas.
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Josema Cutillas.
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Josema Cutillas.
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Josema Cutillas.
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Josema Cutillas.
Construction of Crop Top
Crop Top construction, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Sara Cuerdo.
Crop Top construction, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Sara Cuerdo.
Crop Top construction, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Sara Cuerdo.
Crop Top construction, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Sara Cuerdo.
Crop Top construction, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Sara Cuerdo.
Crop Top construction, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Sara Cuerdo.
Crop Top construction, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Sara Cuerdo.
Crop Top construction, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Sara Cuerdo.
Crop Top construction, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © Sara Cuerdo.
PROJECT CREDITS
Author: BairBalliet
Team: Kelly Bair and Kristy Balliet
Client: Concéntrico
Institutional support: MAS Context
Location: Plaza Cofradía del Vino Rioja, Logroño, Spain
Production: Gerardo Gorris
Logistical Support: Construcciones Calleja
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © BairBalliet.
Crop Top, Concéntrico Festival, Logroño, 2025. © BairBalliet.
PRESS
“El festival que nos hace volver a quedar en las plazas (y a disfrutar de la arquitectura),” AD España, June 20, 2025.“Concéntrico 2025 Opens in Logroño, Spain, With 24 Urban Interventions,” ArchDaily, June 20, 2025.
“Concéntrico 11 en imágenes,” Arquitectura Viva, June 19, 2025
“Logroño da la bienvenida a Concéntrico, el Festival de Arquitectura y Diseño, que invita a repensar la ciudad,” Cadena Ser, June 19, 2025.
“Concéntrico 2025, il festival di architettura e design a Logroño in Spagna, compie 10 anni,” Corriere della Sera, June 20, 2025.
“Un paseo por Concéntrico el festival que transforma la ciudad para repensarla,“ El Diario, June 21, 2025.
“Una piscina a los pies del Espartero, una sauna en plena Gran Vía,” El Pais, June 20, 2025.
“Concéntrico 2025 inaugura su décima edición con 24 intervenciones de equipos de 16 países de Europa, América y Asia,” Europa Press, June 19, 2025.
“Concéntrico 2025 arranca en Logroño con 24 instalaciones,” Neo2 Magazine, June 20, 2025.
“Concéntrico toma la ciudad con 24 instalaciones y un espíritu colectivo,” La Rioja, June 19, 2025.
