10 examples of Ephemeral Architecture to reflect on space

The selected projects have been developed by architectural students, from the Masters in Design and Space Production of UPC and CCCB. All of them have share the same premise: space is not unambiguous, each person has a particular spatial conception, regardless of the typology or form.

That is why the creation of this type of architecture not only responds to volumetries or lines, but specific tools are needed to act on space in a creative, responsible, sensitive and emotional way, bringing well-being to the user who enjoys it.


WATER LIGHT – 10 examples of Ephemeral Architectures to reflect on space. Photograph courtesy of MÁSTER UPC and CCCB

WATER LIGHT – Ephemeral Architecture for Barcelona Light Festival 2015
 
The Pati Llimona in Barcelona is a space where different stories from different times coexist. On one side are the imposing remains of the ancient Roman wall and the vestiges of the thermal baths. On the other hand, an old wall is still standing, where the marks of the semi-detached houses that were torn down are visible. Finally, an active Civic Center links a charismatic space where the historical and patrimonial element coexists with the old neighborhood life and the warmth of the current social life. 

The WATER LIGHT project tries to put this set in value, playing with three elements of force: Water, Light and Spectator. It is intended that the viewer will be the activator of a light effects obtained from a quotidian object: a bottle of water. Thus, the water will be transferred to the old port thermes and the viewer acts as an engine for the light effects.
 
POINT CERO – Ephemeral Architecture for Barcelona Light Festival 2019
Since the beginning of the collective human consciousness, attempts have been made to make sense of the existence of who we are, the trace of history and of ourselves. However, in the process, the search has been distorted and the focus has been lost.

This proposal of ephemeral architecture aims to encourage the return of the elemental. To get a closer relationship with our inner, leaving all the pretensions and returning to matter. The proposed reflection evokes thinking about what we really are leaving in the world and looking at the past. What is left of us? The human becomes smoke in the cosmovision and from this reflection can come the complicity between man and the universe.
 
THE MONTSERRAT PATIO – Ephemeral Architecture for Barcelona Light Festival 2020
 
THE MONTSERRAT PATIO looks for the revitalization of space by integrating light into a dynamic game. Light swings are activated by users, creating a series of light textures and light lines that stretch in ramifications over the square. This interaction makes the game a vehicle for space recognition and identification. The installation invites citizens to transform the square into a real meeting point.
 
RIVERBED – Ephemeral Architecture for the 2018 Girona Temps de Flors Festival
The main objective of the proposal, located next to the Galligants River, its to configure a space that reminds of a flow. Through the density of natural, vertical and hanging elements, a new space is generated, overflowing the original boundaries of the river, inviting the visitor to enter and interact.

To contrast with the chromatic range of the place, a large volume of pelted wicker cannon is used in diferent colors: yellow, orange, red and purple, creating a color gradient in the landscape. Thanks to different rhythms, heights and densities, the volumetry will vary along the route. The reeds will be hung and slightly separated from the ground, giving the impression that the installation rises over the river and crosses the conventional routes.

The natural breeze of the place and the spontaneous participation of the visitor will have a sound effect that evokes the wind bells. Through its incredible landscapes, Girona finds in this place an interaction between the historic center and the forest, taking advantage of its many views and accesses.
 
CONSTANT – Ephemeral Architecture for Barcelona Light Festival 2018
 
CONSTANT is a stable and guided proposal. Led light arches make up the path, without loss. The morphology of the montage refers to a tunnel, emphasizing the sense of continuity: that feeling of tranquility when you know how to move forward and what you're going to find. The journey ends in an infinite reflection of lights that illuminates the way back to the sidewalks of the neighborhood.


NIKTÉ - 10 examples of Ephemeral Architectures to reflect on space. Photograph by Jordi S. Carrera, Mauricio Moreno

NIKTÉ – Ephemeral Architecture for the 2019 Girona Temps de Flors Festival
 
Is birth the most important moment in our history? What would the begining of life be like inside a rocky, gloomy, humid and gray space?

NIKTÉ proposes a shady space that is illuminated with a subtle flash of light, shining from the outside to give life to a single flower in a desolate landscape. This birth, like spring, evokes the beginning of everything; a sublime transition between absence and life, between emptiness and fullness or between darkness and light.

The space proposed in this ephemeral architecture connects us with nature. Light makes visible what was hidden and guides the viewer from emptiness to color, life and movement. Representing the exact moment when everything is reborn.

NIKTÉ is the word used by the Mayans to describe flowers, in tune with one of the key elements of the proposal.


FLOW - 10 examples of Ephemeral Architectures to reflect on space. Photograph courtesy of MÁSTER UPC and CCCB

FLOW – Ephemeral Architecture for the 2017 Girona Temps de Flors Festival
 
The term 'flow' refers to the relentless movement of a liquid, something that has life by itself and generates a link with the place where it goes. 

With this idea in mind, FLUJO proposal turns an empty space into a new urban landscape. An organic and natural fabric is contrasted with the limited geometry of space and a set of organic figures are generated to recall the shape of a banana leaf. By putting these figures in tension and at different angles, you get them the ability to compose a new urban space from nowhere.


TELL ME A STORY - 10 examples of Ephemeral Architectures to reflect on space. Photograph by Nadia Pasko

TELL ME A STORY – Ephemeral Architecture for the World Book Festival 2015
 
Sometimes it's enough to read less than one page of a book to transport you to other worlds, talk to animals, or be as small as a thumb. 

Imagine if we could walk on the blank sheets of a book whose pages are as large as our mind can dream of. TELL ME A STORY intends to transport the visitor to that dream. It's a place where you can write stories with just extending your arms. Inspiring yourself while reading stories about other stories. "It's your imagination, it's your story, it's your book."


RED SWIM - 10 examples of Ephemeral Architectures to reflect on space. Photograph by Pere Albiac

RED SWIM – Ephemeral Architecture for the Barcelona Lights Festival 2016
 
RED SWIM proposes the creation of a space "to live". The color experience, closely related to light, generates stimulus through light treatment. 

The space is saturated with red light, which makes the human eye react by producing a green color, creating the illusion that red looks less intense. Space becomes a reflection on the idea that things are not what they seem to be; a suspense game that takes advantage of the loop between the retina, the brain, and our environment. The viewer, unknowingly, becomes an experiment in itself and also experiments while being experienced.


ROOM TO HABIT - 10 examples of Ephemeral Architectures to reflect on space. Photograph courtesy of MÁSTER UPC and CCCB

ROOM TO HABIT – Ephemeral Architecture for a traveling exhibition
 
In this case the space is adapted to a traveling exhibition in which the mockups are the protagonists. The sample puts on the table new ways of living, showing abstract volume cubes (480x480x480 cm) in which dwellings are designed to run away from the known standards. 

The visitor, linked to the interior design or not, can perceive by its own skin the spatial volumetry that is being proposed, and better understand the housing proposals that explain the models. The proposal is formalized by 9 columns of DM 48x48x480 cm that serve as an exhibitor, but also draw the space perimetically and creates a path for the visitor.