Ephemeral architecture

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Japan Pavilion at the Expo 2000 in Hanover, designed by Shigeru Ban, one of the architects of
the Pompidou Center

Ephemeral architecture is the art or technique of designing and building structures

that are transient, that last only a short time. Ephemeral art has been a constant in
the history of architecture, although a distinction must be made between
constructions conceived for temporary use and those that, despite being built with
durability in mind, have a brief expiration due to various factors, especially the poor
quality of the materials (wood, adobe, plaster, cardboard, textiles), in cultures that
would not have sufficiently developed solid construction systems.
Ephemeral architecture was usually used for celebrations and festivals of all kinds,
as scenography or theatrical scenery for a specific event, which was dismantled after
the event. It has existed since ancient art—it is at the origin of forms such as
the triumphal arch, whose ephemeral model was fixed in permanent constructions
during the Roman Empire—and it was very common in European courts during
the Renaissance and especially in the Baroque.
Despite its circumstantial character, the ephemeral has been a recurrent and
relevant architecture. From Baroque scenographies to contemporary installations,
each ephemeral period has given shape to its idea of celebration and has
materialized it with the technique available at the time. Today the ephemeral
continues to fulfill these playful and experimental functions, but it also aspires to
channel new ideas about public space and social participation, halfway between
the city and nature.

Contents

• 1Classification
o 1.1Traditional ephemeral architecture
▪ 1.1.1Ancient period
▪ 1.1.2Early modern period, Renaissance and Baroque
▪ 1.1.3Contemporary period
o 1.2Nomadic architecture
o 1.3Obsolescent architecture
o 1.4Emergency architecture
• 2Principles
• 3Main authors
o 3.1AntFarm
 o 3.2Archigram
o 3.3Future Systems
o 3.4Shigeru Ban
o 3.5Santiago Cirugeda
• 4Remarkable works
o 4.1Endless House. Frederick John Kiesler, 1924
o 4.2Detachable house for beach. GATCPAC, 1932
o 4.3Maisons a Portiques. Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier, 1945
o 4.4Village in cardboard. Guy Rottier, 1960
o 4.5Plug in city. Archigram, 1962-1966
o 4.6Living Pod. David Greene, Archigram, 1966
o 4.7Peanut. Future Systems, 1984
o 4.8Pao 1 & 2 of the nomadic girls of Tokyo. Toyo Ito, 1989
o 4.9Casa Básica. Martín Ruiz de Azúa, 1999
o 4.10Pink Project. Graph Architects, 2008
o 4.11Paper Log House. Shigeru Ban, 1955
• 5See also
• 6References

Classification[edit]
In the social context, there are various ways of including ephemeral architecture: for
specific events (traditional ephemeral architecture), as a way of life (nomadic
architecture), as a requirement of a society that reveres change (obsolescent
architecture), and as a necessity (emergency architecture).[1]
Traditional ephemeral architecture[edit]
The architecture that is ephemeral because of its "eventuality."
Ancient period[edit]

Ephemeral architecture project for the entry of Felipe V in Madrid (February 18, 1701),
by Teodoro Ardemans.

Embellishment of the Platerias Street on the occasion of the entry of Charles III in
Madrid, by Lorenzo Quirós, 1760.
 •

Funerary ceremony in honor of Catherine Opalińska, mother-in-law of Louis XV of

France, held in 1747 at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
There are few documents of constructions designed with an ephemeral duration, on
the contrary, both Egyptian architecture and Greek and Roman stand out for their
monumentality and the long-lasting eagerness of their constructions, especially the
religious ones. The ephemeral constructions were especially used for public
ceremonies and celebrations of military victories, or for festivities related to kings and
emperors. Thus, there is a valuable testimony of a pavilion erected by Ptolemy II of
Egypt to celebrate a banquet, reported by Athenaeus:
Four of the columns were shaped like palm trees, while those in the center
resembled thyrsus. Outside the columns, on three sides, there was a portico with a
peristyle and vaulted ceiling, where the retinue of guests could be placed. Inside, the
pavilion was surrounded with purple curtains, except for the spaces between the
columns, adorned with skins of extraordinary variety and beauty.

— Deipnosophistae, V, 196 y ss.[2]

Early modern period, Renaissance and Baroque[edit]

Triumphal Arch in honor of Alfonso XIII, on the occasion of the king's visit to Barcelona, on April 6, 1904,
by Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia.

The splendor of ephemeral architecture was produced in the Early modern period, in
the Renaissance and—especially— the Baroque, eras of consolidation of
the absolute monarchy, when European monarchs sought to elevate their figure
above that of their subjects, resorting to all kinds of propagandistic and exalting acts
of their power, in political and religious ceremonies or celebrations of a playful
nature, which showed the magnificence of their government. One of the most
frequent resources were the thriumphal arches, erected for any act such as military
celebrations, royal weddings or visits of the monarch to various cities. There are
several testimonies in this regard, such as the triumphal arch at the Porte Saint-
Denis for the entrance of Enrique II in Paris in 1549, the arch at the Pont Nôtre-
Dame for the entrance of Charles IX in Paris in 1571, the triumphal arch
of Maximilian I designed by Dürer in 1513, the triumphal arch for the entrance
of Charles V in Bruges in 1515, the arch for the entrance of Prince Philip
(future Philip II of Spain) in Ghent in 1549, etc.[3]
During the Baroque, the ornamental—contrived and ornate character of the art of
this time conveyed a transitory sense of life—related to the memento mori, the
ephemeral value of riches in the face of the inevitability of death, in parallel to the
pictorial genre of the vanitas. This sentiment led to a vitalist appreciation of the
fleetingness of the instant, to enjoy the light moments of relaxation that life offers, or
the celebrations and solemn acts. Thus, births, weddings, deaths, religious
ceremonies, royal coronations and other recreational or ceremonial events were
dressed with pomp and artifice of a scenography character, where great assemblies
were elaborated that agglutinated architecture and decorations to provide an
eloquent magnificence to any celebration, which became a spectacle of
almost catartic character, where the illusory element, the attenuation of the border
between reality and fantasy took on special relevance.
Baroque art sought the creation of an alternative reality through fiction and illusion,
resorting to foreshortening and illusionist perspective, a tendency that had its
maximum expression in festivities, the playful celebration, where buildings such as
churches or palaces, or a neighborhood or an entire city, became theaters of life, in
scenarios where reality and illusion were mixed, where the senses were subverted to
deception and artifice. The Counter-Reformationist Church played a special role,
seeking to show its superiority over the Protestant Churches with pomp and
pageantry, through events such as
solemn mass, canonizations, jubilees, processions or papal investitures. But just as
lavish were the celebrations of the monarchy and the aristocracy, with events such
as coronations, royal weddings and births, funerals, ambassador visits, any event
that allowed the monarch to display his power to the admiration of the people.
Baroque festivities involved a conjugation of all the arts, from architecture and the
plastic arts to poetry, music, dance, theater, pyrotechnics, floral arrangements, water
games, etc. Architects such as Bernini or Pietro da Cortona, or Alonso
Cano and Sebastián Herrera Barnuevo in Spain, contributed their talent to such
events, designing structures, choreographys, lighting and other elements, which
often served them as a testing ground for future more serious endeavors.
The baldachin for the canonization of Saint Elizabeth of Portugal thus served Bernini
for his future design of St. Peter's baldachin, and Carlo Rainaldi's quarantore (sacred
theater of the Jesuits) was a model of the church of Santa Maria in Campitelli.[4]
Contemporary period[edit]

Pavilion of the Compañía Transatlántica, designed by Antoni Gaudí for the Barcelona Universal
Exposition (1888).

In the Contemporary period the phenomenon of the universal exhibitions— trade

fairs held in cities all over the world to showcase scientific, technological and cultural
advances to the population, and which became true mass spectacles and great
advertising showcases for companies or countries that promoted their products—is
worth mentioning. These exhibitions were held in enclosures where each country or
company built a pavilion to promote itself, which were buildings or structures
conceived in an ephemeral way to last only as long as the exhibition lasted.
However, many of these constructions were preserved due to their success or the
originality of their design, becoming a testing ground and promotion of the work of
many architects. These exhibitions saw the first experiments with new typologies and
materials characteristic of contemporary architecture, such as construction
with concrete, iron and glass, or the important development of interior design,
especially fostered by modernism. The first universal exhibition took place
in London in 1851, being famous for the Crystal Palace designed by Joseph Paxton,
a large glass palace with iron structure, which despite being preserved was
destroyed by fire in 1937. From then until now there have been numerous
exhibitions, many of which have revealed great architectural achievements, such as
the Exposition Universelle of 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was built; the Barcelona
International Exposition, which produced the German Pavilion by Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe; the Brussels World's Fair, which produced the Atomium, by André
Waterkeyn; the Seattle World's Fair, famous for the Space Needle; the International
and Universal Exposition, with the US Pavilion in the form of a geodesic dome,
by Buckminster Fuller; that of Sevilla '92, which bequeathed a theme park (Isla
Mágica) and several office and technological development buildings (Cartuja 93); or
that of Lisbon 1998, which legacy was the Oceanarium.[5]

Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the boom since the mid-20th century

in ice architecture, especially in the Nordic countries—as is logical given the
special climatic circumstances that require this type of construction—where various
types of ice buildings have begun to proliferate, such as hotels, museums, palaces
and other structures generally conceived for public use and for recreational or
cultural purposes. These constructions are based on traditional structures such as
the igloo, the typical dwelling of the Eskimoes, but have evolved by incorporating all
the theoretical and technical advances of modern architecture. Among other
buildings made of ice, the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi—built in 1990 on a provisional
basis and maintained thanks to the success of the initiative, being redecorated every
year with the participation of various architects, artists and students of various
disciplines—is worth mentioning.
Except in the case of ice architecture, which hosts functions usually reserved for
traditional architecture and needs to be preserved in order to survive,
the construction methods used for this type of ephemeral architecture, as well as
the materials, do not differ much from those used in traditional architecture. This and
the fact that the societies in which it was developed were prone to venerate
monumentality, and the success of some of the constructions of the universal
exhibitions, meant that many of these buildings were finally preserved. Nowadays,
the architecture that can best be compared to this type of event constructions
are exhibitions (in museums, on the street, etc.) and cinematographic or
theatrical scenographys. It is worth mentioning the relationship of ephemeral
architecture with citizen cartography, and its relationship with the decision-making
power of the user, who becomes the architect of his part of the space on some
occasions. It can happen that specific parts of a building are movable, to configure a
space in a momentary way in which everyone can adapt the conditions to the most
suitable for himself.
Nomadic architecture[edit]

Nomads near Nam Lake

Peter Cook presents Archigram's project of “Plug-in City”

Portable domestic architecture that is ephemeral because of its "translationality".

Architecture, in its origin, was born being ephemeral and to this day
certain tribes continue with this lifestyle. There are theoretical projects that transfer
this concept to the city, such as the New Babylon, developed from 1948 by Constant
Nieuwenhuys. A utopia on a planetary scale, which advocates a return to nomadic
origins thanks to the improvement of the machine, which frees the human being from
his tasks (food production, etc.), and in this way a new evolution of the human being
appears, the homo ludens who, freed from his occupations, can devote himself to art
and happiness. For this achievement the world must be conceived from the freedom
of choices and therefore of movements.[6]
New Babylon does not stop anywhere (because the earth is round); it knows no
borders (because there are no more national economies), nor collectivities (because
humanity is fluctuating). Any place is accessible to each and everyone. The whole
planet becomes the home of the inhabitants of the earth. Everyone changes place
when he or she wants to. Life is an endless journey through a world that transforms
so rapidly that each time seems different.

— Constant Nieuwenhuys, New Babylon Manifesto, 1974

L'Architecture Mobile (1958) by Yona Friedman and the Plug-in-City (1964)
by Archigram are also examples of the megastructures approach to this type of
utopian cities. The cycle closes. If the human being becomes sedentary because he
discovers the benefits of cultivation, after millennia machines free him from such a
chore, so he can put his house back in his backpack and travel the world.
Obsolescent architecture[edit]

Raines court building, a symbol of industrial architecture, in Stoke Newington, London

Takatori Catholic Church, the structure is made of cardboard tubes. The church was initially built
in Kōbe after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995. Although it was later dismantled and donated
to Taiwan for reconstruction in 2008.

Working in the Ciudad abierta de Ritoque, Chile.

Architecture that is ephemeral because of its " temporariness". Architectural types

that until now had always been conceived to remain, such as the house, are now
thought to be dismembered and their pieces reused. It is the inheritance of the
industrial society that allows us an architecture of prefabricated dwellings.
As Sigfried Giedion explained at the First Congress of the CIAM:[7]
Aware of the profound disturbances brought to the social structure by machinism, the
transformation of the economic order and social life implies a transformation of the
architectural phenomenon.

— Sigfried Giedion, Declaration of the 1st CIAM held from June 25 to 29, 1928 at the
Château de La Sarraz
Unlike nomadic architecture, the structure of the world maintains its sedentary
nature, but the elements that we find within it are projected to change at a faster rate
every day: the latest generation of cell phones, fashionable clothes, fast food, etc.
These are terms that have settled in the collective unconscious and induce us to
enhance the value of change and speed. It is positive, within this way of conceiving
times of use, that a rising value is also ecology, since the reuse of these obsolete
pieces is the antidote against landfills. There is a prevailing trivialization in many
social aspects with the dominance of the ephemeral, the disposable. We are not only
tolerant but enthusiastic about garbage-jobs, garbage-companies, garbage-stores,
garbage-furniture, garbage-houses, garbage-families, garbage-programs and
garbage-books. This strategy goes through the elimination of the qualities of things.
In the words of José Luis Pardo:
The only way to maintain the type—and this is the brilliant idea we are talking
about—is for things to originally lack properties (i.e., to be junk beforehand) without
their conversion into junk deriving from the wear and tear generated by use.

— José Luis Pardo, Trash has never been so beautiful. p.85a

Emergency architecture[edit]
Architecture that is ephemeral because of its "economy of resources". Based on
immediate constructions, the fundamental premise is the rapid response required for
its construction. That it will lose its use, be dismembered or change its place is of no
interest. The important thing is to solve a specific need at a specific time, in the
simplest way. It can be related to moments of natural catastrophes, as in the case of
the Paper House by Shigeru Ban (1995) to provide a temporary housing for several
victims of the Kobe earthquake; or with social sectors with few resources who want
to provide them with a better quality of life. The latter case is more related to self-
construction as a liberation from the bonds of capitalism, the construction of a
greater solidarity among men, a condition of life in harmony with nature, and the
feeling of being architects of a new beginning. The Rural Studio in Alabama and
the Open City of Ritoque (Valparaíso) are examples of this field of architectural
experimentation.

Principles[edit]
• Temporariness. Life, nowadays, is unpredictable. "Everyone changes
places when they want to. Life is an endless journey through a world that
transforms so rapidly that each time seems different."[8] Ephemeral
architecture is meant to respond to a specific act and can be dismantled
 after it has responded to that act. It can always be returned to the origin,
unlike permanent constructions, in which the site remains conditioned. [9]

• Flexibility. The world changes constantly and at an ever-increasing speed.

This type of architecture adapts quickly to the needs of the place. It can be
constantly re-modeled, as needs change.[9] The permeability of this
architecture allows it to be assembled and disassembled by the users
themselves. Nowadays any country or city is susceptible to encounter
different emergency situations: situations derived from extreme
meteorological phenomena, pandemics or moments in which political,
military or civil disturbance factors intervene. In this sense, ephemeral
architecture has an important task to solve in order to provide temporary
shelters and shelters for victims of any kind, showing its most supportive
character.[10]

• Innovation. It is about creating an architecture with innovative solutions in

terms of miniaturization, self-construction and new materials.[11] It has been
reflected above all in emergency solutions either by wars or natural
disasters.[9] Conditions such as lightness, economy, speed and simplicity
of assembly and disassembly, storage, sustainability, minimal, collective,
transportable, reusable, prefabrication, and so on, require using the most
innovative aspect of the architectural research.[10]

• Low cost. Concept generalized in the 60's with the fast food chains. In this
consumer society, "low cost" companies of services, communications,
industrial, technological, automotive and even airlines have appeared in all
media. In the ephemeral architecture, low cost is one of the priority
concepts that allows and motivates rapid operations to experiment,
investigate and propose models and construction methods that are more
advanced and visionary than those that traditional architecture allows us. [10]

• Economy of resources. This type of architecture adapts economically to

the needs of the place. It takes into account the existing, either by nearby
materials, or by taking into account the environment. Non-permanent
architecture should not be exempt from its surroundings. The structural
design must be the most appropriate to optimize resources.[12]

• Waste management. There are many economic problems and social

problems that make us change the way of doing things. Nowadays, many
believe that architecture should optimize resources and be low cost. This
can be achieved by using recycled and recyclable materials, with
reversible constructions. Once the building is no longer needed the
materials can be returned to the company or reused for another
construction, avoiding debris.

• Do it yourself. Reversible self-buildings where users can decide what

divisions and connections they want to make according to the use they
need. It's a counterculture movement transferable to any area of daily life.
Although it is also associated with anti-capitalist movements, by rejecting
the idea of always buying from others things that one can create or
 manufacture. From the 1950s, the ability of each person to build his own
house is made available to society, supported by the emergence of new
materials such as plastics, which are characterized by their lightness and
ease of transport, as well as making it possible to simplify the joining of
different parts. Each person is the owner of their own environment, their
own habitat. It is possible for the individual to become a
contemporary nomad. Moreover, the user is the one who decides whether
it works and must remain or whether it has finished its task.[10]

Main authors[edit]

Peter Cook of Archigram, architects association

Pompidou Center, Architect Shigeru Ban

AntFarm[edit]
At the end of the 60s in the United States, AntFarm, a collective
of architects, philosophers, filmmakers and artists arose that produced
numerous performances, audiovisuals, collections of slides such as the enviro-
images, television programs clandestine Top Value Television, inflatable architecture
manuals like the Inflatocookbook, manifestos like the Nomadic Cowboy, or bound
books like Real©ity, all with the aim of proposing new environments for a new way of
life. A proposal with different mobile, inflatable, mechanical and technological
elements that produce the necessary effects to make any support habitable with a
vital, alternative, nomadic, utopian and experimental architecture, as he believes that
"today's ambiguous society forces static patterns of life."[10]
Archigram[edit]
Founded in 1962 by Warren Chalk, Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, David
Greene, Rom Herrom and Michael Webb, Archigram made a series of technological,
futuristic and utopian proposals that bet on an ephemeral architecture destined to be
consumed like any other product of society.[10]
Future Systems[edit]
Based in England and founded by Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete, Future
Systems propose three technological, mobile, transformable, autonomous,
sustainable, capsule, prefabricated, lightweight houses, using solar energy and wind
energy. On the one hand, they could be understood as a revision and updating of the
fundamental aspects raised from Buckminster Fuller to the generation of the masters
of the 60s with whom Kaplicky and Levete were trained, and on the other hand, as
visionaries of the world to come from the 21st century.[10]
Shigeru Ban[edit]
Shigeru Ban manages to develop an emergency architecture from the social
responsibility of the architect through experimentation and new (old) materials,
the low cost, the temporal dimension, the low tech, the existing, the structural design,
the waste management, the struggle with regulations, the commitment, participation,
flexibility and the rejection of media architecture. Shigeru's houses are designed to
be constantly remodeled, as are the needs. They are easy to build, the users
themselves can do it.[9]
Santiago Cirugeda[edit]
Santiago Cirugeda is one of the most innovative architects of the Spanish urban
scene. His proposals on issues of occupation and resistance have given him
international recognition in the field of "guerrilla architecture". With his
project Recetas Urbanas, he provides legal advice. He makes projects that reflect
the idea of ephemeral architecture, these take into account the needs of the
individual, the area where it is located and the circumstances of the moment. He
defines an economic project, which adapts to demand and can even be self-built. He
believes in non-permanent architecture, so many of his projects can be dismantled
once it loses the utility for which it was created. In the documentary Spanish Dream,
Cirugeda explains his way of understanding architecture:
I have no interest in making architecture that lasts 300 years, but to make an
architecture that serves temporary states because there are situations in the city that
are developed by people who occasionally, for years, will work there or live there.

Remarkable works[edit]

Jean Prouvé's Tropical Houses represent the culmination of his studies on maisons à portiques, easily
assembled and disassembled houses that could be mass-produced cheaply.
Exterior of Birmingham Selfridges, by Future Systems

Endless House. Frederick John Kiesler, 1924[edit]

For more than 30 years, the Viennese architect F. J. Kiessler, researched,
speculated and experimented in an indeterminate, transformable, self-built, self-
supporting, versatile, infinite, mutable and ergonomic architecture. The Endless
House project, where the author explored the architectural possibilities of spaces in
infinite development, capable of adapting to the changing conditions of the
environment, never constant, always evolving, with a biomorphic configuration. The
architecture "infinite as the human being, without beginning or end".
Detachable house for beach. GATCPAC, 1932[edit]
A type of wooden, minimal, self-built, demountable house for the vacation period
in Catalonia. The whole house must be manageable: volume, weight, surface and
reduced cost. The house can be expandable and is supplied with the indispensable
furniture. It is intended to live in harmony with the landscape and nature without
damaging the natural environment.[10]
Maisons a Portiques. Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier,
1945[edit]
Together with Jean Prouvé, they designed and produced 400 removable pavilions as
temporary housing for casualties after the liberation of France during the Second
World War known as Maisons a Portiques. No element had to exceed 100 kilograms
or measure more than 4 meters in order to meet the idea of quick and simple
assembly, without technical aids, which could be transported in one go on a truck.
The joints and connections had to be free of tension, even in the case of technical
deformation; the facades had to be made up of interchangeable elements. [10]
Village in cardboard. Guy Rottier, 1960[edit]
He proposes new and unprecedented architectures, corresponding to another way of
living, combined with the new materials that were beginning to invade the
construction market. His proposals deal with the architecture of camouflage,
evolutionary, solar, ephemeral, vacation, recovery, etc. In his Village in
Cardboard he proposes a vacation village in cardboard cells without doors or
windows. All the space is public and does not offer "comfort". The roofs will be
generated by the users with the aim that the vacationers are active, relate and
communicate with others. The houses would be burned down at the end of the
vacation.[10]
Plug in city. Archigram, 1962-1966[edit]
A megastructure that had no buildings, just a large frame into which housing or
service capsules could be fitted in the form of cells or standardized components.
Each element had a durability; the base tubular structure 40 years, in the capsules it
varies according to its program, from 6 months for a commercial space, to 5-8 years
for bedrooms and living rooms. At the top an inflatable balloon is activated in bad
weather.[10]
Living Pod. David Greene, Archigram, 1966[edit]
It is a habitat-capsule that can be inserted inside an urban structure called plug-in, or
it can be transported and perched on any natural landscape. A hybrid
architecture, hermetic, small, comfortable and technological, constituted by the
space itself and by the machines connected to it: "The house is an apparatus to be
transported with itself, the city is a machine to which you connect." Although
comparable to a capsule, the Living Pod does not have autonomy, that is why in
1969 he proposed the Logplug-Rockplug. Real simulations of logs and rocks that
serve to hide service points for semi-autonomous living containers. They go
unnoticed, perfectly adapted to the landscape and bring to any environment a high
degree of technological support without detracting from the natural beauty. [10]
Peanut. Future Systems, 1984[edit]
Rural shelter that mounts on a standard articulated hydraulic boom. The unit is for
two people, can move on air, land and water according to purpose, activity or time. It
is a kinetic response to life, allowing the inhabitants to control the appearance or
orientation of the capsule according to mood, activity and time, leaving behind the
fixed viewpoint of static dwellings.[10]
Pao 1 & 2 of the nomadic girls of Tokyo. Toyo Ito, 1989[edit]
A project from the mid-1980s, consisting of a concept of a house scattered all over
the city, where life goes by while using the fragments of the city space as a collage.
For it, the living room is the cafe-bar and the theater, the dining room is the
restaurant, the closet is the boutique, and the garden is the sports club. [10]
Casa Básica. Martín Ruiz de Azúa, 1999[edit]
Proposal that aims to demonstrate that the habitat can be understood in a more
essential and reasonable way, keeping a more direct relationship with the
environment. An almost immaterial volume that swells from the heat of our own body
or the sun, so versatile that it protects from cold and heat, so light that it floats. [10]
Pink Project. Graph Architects, 2008[edit]
Produced by the Make it Right Foundation. It was conceived as an informative-
commemorative tool to raise awareness and activate individual participation to
alleviate the needs of those affected by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Thousands of people were left unprotected and homeless, and the objective was to
raise funds for the reconstruction of the devastated homes. Given the strong visual
and metaphorical potential of installing a village of pink "houses" in the devastated
area, Pink was the virtual city of hope, a hybrid of art, architecture, film, media and
fundraising strategies.
Paper Log House. Shigeru Ban, 1955[edit]
For the victims of the Kobe earthquake. These emergency housing units have been
built on two more occasions, in Turkey in 2000 and India in 2001. Self-built with
maximum economy of means, they use sand-filled soft drink boxes as foundations,
and walls constructed of cardboard tubes with insulating capacity and rain-resistant
once protected with a kerosene primer. The tarpaulin roof, attached to a cardboard
truss, can be removed and detached in summer to allow ventilation. The material
cost of a 52 m² unit is less than $2,000, and the assembly is designed to be carried
out by the victims and volunteers themselves. Emergency housing took between 6
and 10 hours to build.

See also[edit]
• Ephemeral art
• Spanish Baroque ephemeral architecture
• Spanish Baroque painting
• Tactical urbanism

References[edit]
1. ^ "Ephemeral architecture – HiSoUR – Hi So You Are". Retrieved 2022-09-18.
2. ^ Elvira, Miguel Ángel (1989). El arte griego (III) (magazine). Madrid: Historia 16. p. 66.
3. ^ Suárez Quevedo, Diego (1989). Renacimiento y Manierismo en Europa (magazine).
Madrid: Historia 16. pp. 135–141.
4. ^ Martínez Ripoll, Antonio (1989). El Barroco en Italia (magazine). Madrid: Historia 16.
pp. 17–18.
5. ^ de Miguel Egea, Pilar (1989). Del Realismo al Impresionismo (magazine). Madrid:
Historia 16. pp. 100–108.
6. ^ "NEW BABYLON MANIFIESTO Constant 1974". PAC-MAN WWW.PKMN.ES (in
Spanish). 2008.
7. ^ Alvarez, OMA (2004). "GATEPAC Casas de fin de semana, entre la tradición y la
máquina" (PDF) (in Spanish).
8. ^ Wigley, Mark (1998). Constant's New Babylon: The Hyper-architecture of Desire. 010
Publishers.
9. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Quinejure, Michel (2000). Shigeru Ban, Arquitectura de Emergencia.
Documental fundación ARQUIA nº19.
10. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Blasco, Carmen. "Efímeras, alternativas
habitables" (PDF) (in Spanish).
11. ^ Willemin, Véronique (2004). Maisons mobiles (in French). Beau livre.
12. ^ Cirugeda, Santiago. "Espacios públicos temporales" (in Spanish). Madrid.
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