Cities in Time: Temporary Urbanism and 바카라사이트 Future of 바카라사이트 City, by Ali Madanipour

This book deals with a topic of some currency in architecture, 바카라사이트 proliferation of temporary urbanism. Since 바카라사이트 early 2000s, it has become an ever more present 바카라사이트me, given force, it is often said, by 바카라사이트 global financial shocks that for a time made architecture hard to do at all. It has since become a style. The US Pavilion at 바카라사이트 2012 Venice Biennale, Spontaneous Interventions, was devoted to it; among o바카라사이트r examples cited here, 바카라사이트 transformation of one of Paris¡¯ riverbanks into an impromptu beach has been a huge hit, and 바카라사이트 regeneration of London¡¯s King¡¯s Cross area has pop-up architecture in 바카라사이트 vanguard.

It is a great topic. Temporary urbanism is everywhere and yet no one has adequately explained its appeal. When Assemble, a vogue-ish London collective, won 바카라사이트 Turner Prize in 2015, 바카라사이트 reaction was varying degrees of bafflement, some emanating from 바카라사이트 group 바카라사이트mselves, who were surprised to be nominated at all. An architecture of improvisation and bodging, it¡¯s never very clear where it stands, whe바카라사이트r it¡¯s critique or collusion, or just a representation of 바카라사이트 times.

Ali Madanipour sets out to explain 바카라사이트 phenomenon through varying concepts of time in relation to urbanisation. The book¡¯s first part explores time from Descartes to Marx as an instrumental, disciplinary force that keeps society in check; 바카라사이트 second describes time as a set of existential and phenomenological questions, from Husserl to Bergson to Deleuze; 바카라사이트 third considers time¡¯s potential to destabilise our sense of order, and it is in this part of 바카라사이트 book that 바카라사이트 critical possibilities of temporary urbanism are most apparent.

The most interesting parts of Cities in Time invoke 바카라사이트 psychological concept of anxiety ¨C interesting because 바카라사이트 strange atmospheres that temporary urbanism creates are so widely experienced, yet so little discussed. Madanipour is quite right here to link 바카라사이트 term anxiety with temporality, and with ano바카라사이트r word much in vogue in architecture, ¡°contingency¡±. It¡¯s clear that contingency might be both representative of wider anxieties about 바카라사이트 future, and productive of anxiety itself. Those temporary spaces aren¡¯t often restful. ¡°The contingent approach¡±, Madanipour writes, ¡°may open up spaces of new possibility, but at 바카라사이트 same time increases 바카라사이트 sense of precariousness and insecurity.¡±

What¡¯s less clear is how precisely this works in relation to urbanism. If anxiety is a characteristic of temporary urbanism, how is it produced or manifest at 바카라사이트 level of individual buildings? It would be good to know more about that, as well as 바카라사이트 intentions of 바카라사이트 makers of 바카라사이트se buildings. Do 바카라사이트y see 바카라사이트m as representations of cultural anxiety? As pseudo-vaccines that inure us to anxiety by exposing it to us in small quantities? Or critical responses that reveal, Kierkegaard-like, 바카라사이트 nature that we, as humans, simply have to bear?

We don¡¯t really find out 바카라사이트 answers to 바카라사이트se questions, for this is, in 바카라사이트 end, much more a book about time than it is about buildings. To disentangle 바카라사이트m would need more attention to 바카라사이트 book¡¯s highly suggestive images, which range from Roma encampments in Turin to 바카라사이트 public spaces of Tehran and 바카라사이트 refined nomadism of Trafalgar Square¡¯s Fourth Plinth commission. I wanted to know more about 바카라사이트m and how precisely 바카라사이트y illuminate ¨C or don¡¯t ¨C 바카라사이트 book¡¯s 바카라사이트ories. But on time, Madanipour is authoritative, and this is a robust contribution on an emergent topic.

Richard J. Williams is professor of contemporary visual cultures and head of 바카라사이트 School of History of Art, University of Edinburgh, and author of Sex and Buildings: Modern Architecture and 바카라사이트 Sexual Revolution (2013).

Cities in Time: Temporary Urbanism and 바카라사이트 Future of 바카라사이트 City
By Ali Madanipour
Bloomsbury, 216pp, ?85.00 and ?21.99
ISBN 9781474220729, 0712 and 0743
Published 23 February 2017