The 100 Chairs project is a proposal from a new alliance between the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, Izaskun Chinchilla and Concentric. An open process that we have developed since December 2021 together with its author, Izaskun Chinchilla. One hundred citizens have been able to design their chairs and get involved in reflecting on how our cities are and how they should be to guarantee us more sustainable spaces that provide a better quality of life and better use of public space.
We believe that a city like Logroño would benefit significantly from having, in some of its spaces, folding chairs that would allow citizens to rest wherever they want and decide what the best use of municipal furniture is: where they look if they sit under a tree, how many people want to have a conversation. This custom of sitting in the public space in individual chairs has existed in Spain and the villages of La Rioja since ancient times. We want our public spaces to have accessible living areas again, where, without the need to have a drink or pay, citizens can meet.
So, we have tried with this project:
– Encourage the agency of public space by citizens and claim the right to participatory governance.
– Promote the mobile character of urban furniture by inviting citizens to exercise their competencies and promoting principles of co-responsibility towards the public.
– Support local communities to co-create the identity of their neighbourhoods through the practice and popularisation of placemaking principles.
In addition to the support of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, the project has received polarisation of the Sunbrella fabric brand. In developing the participatory process, the CRIE (Riojan Centre for Educational Innovation) has also intervened. In implementing the urban rooms, we have received the advice of the Spanish Association for the Protection of Butterflies and their Environment (Zerynthia).
