Ephemeral architecture
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, 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.
Classification
In the social context there are various ways of including ephemeral architecture: for specific events, as a way of life, as a requirement of a society that reveres change, and as a necessity.Traditional ephemeral architecture
The architecture that is ephemeral because of its "eventuality".Ancient period
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:Early modern period, Renaissance and Baroque
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 in Ghent in 1549, etc.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 was a model of the church of Santa Maria in Campitelli.
Contemporary period
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 and several office and technological development buildings ; or that of Lisbon 1998, which legacy was the Oceanarium.File:Icehotel-se-01.JPG|left|thumb|200x200px|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 Inuit, 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 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 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.