Efímera · Reacting Landscapes
CECILIA GONZALEZ TORRES
PAULA LAFUENTE
ROMAN LEDESMA GARCIA
ARIAN YAHYAEE IGNATAKI
ANA E. ZAZO
Madstock is a horizontally organized architectural collective, currently formed by four core members and two collaborators, whose diverse backgrounds span architecture, music, visual arts, education, and psychology. Beyond the core team, we nurture a wider community that embraces architecture, art, construction, communication, and education.
Our collective thrives on trust in each member’s unique talents and knowledge. We collaborate fluidly across design, construction, programming, mediation, education, production, and curatorship, always embracing participatory and interdisciplinary approaches.
Our passion lies in crafting ephemeral architectures and experiences that invite participation, crossing boundaries between disciplines, education, and performance. We are equally committed to sustainability, reuse, and appropriate technologies, weaving these values into our practice.
Among our meaningful collaborations, we have worked closely with the Madrid City Council on projects like “Efímera. Microfestival de paisajes reactivos” (2019) at La Casa Encendida, “Paraíso Inhabitado” (2019) at Madrid Río, and “Tandem. París - Madrid” (2019) in Plaza Barceló.
Madstock was born within ETSAM Madrid, where we designed, organised, and brought to life the Bellastock Spain editions from 2012 to 2014, large-scale self-construction festivals primarily involving architecture students and recent graduates, pushing creative boundaries and fostering deep community engagement.
Our journey also includes collaborations with renowned cultural institutions such as Conde Duque, Teamlabs Campus, Matadero Madrid, and La Casa Encendida, along with projects in Italy, Greece, Poland, and France.
Through these experiences, Madstock continues to explore the edges of ephemeral architecture, community participation, and experimental spatial practices, shaping meaningful encounters on both local and international stages.
Efímera emerges from a desire to rethink architecture beyond static objects and traditional materiality, focusing instead on ephemeral qualities such as light, sound, and atmosphere, elements deeply connected to the concept of landscape. The project was initially inspired by the need to raise awareness and invite reflection on the impact of human presence in our environment, encouraging visitors to reconsider their relationship with space and nature. Developed through interdisciplinary collaboration and experimentation with technology and human presence, Efímera creates a space for sensory and participatory experiences in public settings.
By using visitors’ thermal footprints as real-time input, Efímera generates shifting, spontaneous landscapes that question our usual ways of perceiving space and interaction. These landscapes are entirely improvised: the thermal presence “unravels” into dynamic light and color patterns while simultaneously triggering original sonic signals created from scratch. This approach not only encourages informal education through sensory immersion but also opens a critical dialogue about the relationship between people, environment, and architectural space, touching on environmental awareness and social engagement.
The project has succeeded in creating a flexible space that changes with the people inside it. Visitors are free to interpret the experience in their own way, making each encounter unique. Madstock’s collective interest in experimenting with different technologies is at the heart of Efímera, using simple, adaptable technical systems to both enable the installation’s mobility and support its open-source philosophy. This fosters ongoing learning, collaboration, and evolution with artists from diverse backgrounds, stories, and disciplines.