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LIA

Laboratory for Integrative Architecture 
LOREM IPSUM

TEMPO
Biodiversity and temporary buildings



Introduction


The interdisciplinary TEMPO research project is investigating “temporary conservation measures” applicable to urban brownfields. The idea is for open areas of largely untouched nature and building structures to be seen as units in an alternating cycle.
The project is studying “temporary building” from the architectural, urban planning and socio-economic vantage points as the basis for “temporary conservation”.

The goal of the TEMPO subproject “Temporal Building” is to define shorter-term, deconstructible building typologies featuring high reusability, lightness and minimal effects on the soil with regard to surface sealing or lasting changes. These typologies will thus create the preconditions for sustainable urban development that ensure that building does not force a stop to natural development, but permits its continuation on a cyclical basis (temporary return to nature).


Progress report 2003

The interdisciplinary TEMPO research project is investigating “pro tem conservation measures” applicable to brownfield sites in industrial areas. The idea is for open areas of largely untouched nature and building structures to be seen as units in an alternating cycle. The project is studying “pro tem building” from the architectural, urban planning and socio-economic vantage points as the basis for “pro tem conservation”.

The structural transformation of the industrial sector has created substantial vacant industrial areas in need of “reprogramming”. Previous proposed solutions have generally involved “reprogramming” as a one-time – and thus final – action. The very few studies of industrial property turnover to date suggest that in many cities a greater number of vacant industrial sites are being reused for long-term building than there are new sites becoming vacant. This rules out the permanent restoration of open nature on brownfields. As a result, the overall availability of urban brownfield sites will be declining rapidly.
Can structures be designed to accommodate a cyclical change of program and a partial return to nature despite the parallel existence of lasting structural elements?

Today's production processes have been shaped by miniaturization, acceleration and automation. In addition, new technologies and information processing are continuously transforming the overall framework of industrial organization, which itself is the yardstick building structures are meant to adapt to. Office buildings erected a mere 20 years ago can be so unsuitable for today's open work processes that their conversion can prove more costly than putting up a new building on a different site. While 30 to 50 years were typical for the period between the construction and demolition of production facilities in the past, this time span is currently shrinking to between 10 and 20 years. Indeed, many of today's commercial or industrial buildings have working lives of only 7 to 10 years. Commercial and industrial construction of the future therefore calls for intelligence and flexibility. It must be able to hold its own in highly dynamic, fast-paced markets in which products and customer needs often change faster than production facilities can be planned. TEMPO is developing concepts to show how industrial architecture can keep pace with structural transformation.

There are three different observable time frames: the short-term (length of a day, a week, a season), the mid-term time frame, which represents the period of designing and building, and the long-term time frame, which refers to the ability of a building, a neighbourhood, or a city to accept change, whether social, cultural, or economic, either by assimilating the change or by transforming itself.

Progress report 2004

Four different categories are analyzed on the basis of 72 reference projects: “Industrial produced serial buildings”, “Industrial prototypes”, “Individual prototypes”, and “Partial referring objects”.
The analysis includes the following topics: “Program”, “life span”, “construction”, “criteria for temporal buildings”, and “other characteristics”.
Media for the analyzes of the selected reference projects includes interviews, plan research, manufacturer information, and text analyses. Result of the reference research: The conditions for and the definition of suitable, lasting building typologies.
40% of the analyzed industrial produced serial buildings are used for industry and commerce compared to 3% of all individual prototypes which are industrial or commercially used.
The majority of the analyzed projects (39%) are planned for a use up to one year. This high percentage has its reason in the high number of temporary buildings found on wheels and in the high number of build exhibition rooms. The smallest number of temporary buildings is used between five to twenty years (15%).

The second part of the research is the investigation of the special- and site-specific requirements for industrial and commercial buildings. We divined the user groups for the different industrial and commercial buildings and made research about the necessary requirements regarding the space and site. The service sector and leisure industry had the least requirements regarding space and site, while production and logistics need a too large surface sealing. We confront the special- and site-specific requirements for industrial and commercial buildings with structures that are suitable for temporary buildings.
Temporary industrial and commercial buildings are manifold made out of steel frame structures, scaffolding systems, light-building systems, and container.
Structures can be designed to accommodate a cyclical change of program and a partial return to nature despite the parallel existence of lasting structural elements.

Motives for temporary building
  • Production on site
  • Ephemerality of the market
  • Location flexibility
  • Temporary spaceholder
  • Temporary need
  • Events
  • Trade + markets


Conclusions
  • Building groups of temporary buildings are “industrial produced serial buildings”, “industrial prototypes”, “individual prototypes”, and “partial referring objects”
  • Criteria for temporary buildings are low budget, rapid assembly, modular, reusability, minimal effects on soil with regard to surface sealing, recycling
  • The effects on soil with regard to surface sealing should stand in relation with the building budget, assembly time, and construction type
  • The choice of the construction type depends on the type of utilisation and useful life span
  • The adantage of „industrial produced serial buildings” [Container systems, Scaffolding systems, leightweight and tent constructions] are low building costs, reusability, rapid assembly, modular systems, and minimal effects on soil with regard to surface sealing
  • The spacial and site-specific requirements for industrial buildings are very different from each other and depend on the type of utilisation
  • Industrial and commercial buildings which are suitable for temporary use are: Mobile production modules, storage buildings, building industry, offices, research, gastronomy, retail trade, sale and showrooms, fair and markets, and sport + culture

Project goal

The goal of the TEMPO subproject “Temporary Building” is to define short-term, disassemble building typologies featuring high reusability, lightness and minimal effects on soil with regard to surface sealing or lasting changes. These typologies will thus create the preconditions for sustainable urban development that ensure that buildings do not force a stop to natural development, but permits the temporary return to nature.
Well-established temporary buildings like showrooms, containers or shelters are usually regarded without consideration for reusability and recycling after the end of utilization. Therefore is the development of building elements is another important goal that guarantee a sustainable use.