Abstract

This talk explores temporary urbanism through three interrelated dimensions. A temporary state may fill the gaps, offering interim and multiple use of space, particularly during the periods of economic slowdown; or more actively become a catalyst for change, facilitating experimentation, innovation or animation, which can provide a stepping stone to more stable arrangements. Alternatively, a temporary state may act as a critique of status quo, questioning the fixed identities and arrangements, which could offer new choices, as exemplified in responses to master planning. A temporary state may even become a permanent state, a destination in itself, a way of being, which reflects the speed of change and the precariousness and transience of life in urban societies. The three dimensions amount to an approach to the urban space and its transformation, which is cautious, insecure, flexible, innovative, incoherent and contradictive, with considerable intended and unintended consequences for how cities are built and inhabited.