Pop-ups can be ugly: temporary architecture built with emotions

Abstract

Pop-ups are temporary installations, constructions, or structures that suddenly appear in urban contexts to draw attention for commercial, artistic, or social purposes. Temporary pavilions, whose existence is bound to their capability to engage with unknown citizens or passers-by and offer them a spatial experience, are also identified as pop-ups. However, what are the features that make a temporary structure a pop-up? What architectural elements do designers outsource when conceiving and materialising pop-up architecture? At what point does a pop-up become something else? This paper aims to answer these questions by providing insights into design explorations that extend the meaning of pop-ups and enquiring, through a survey and interviews, the boundaries of what can be understood as pop-up architecture. Collective definitions address the fundamental role of human emotions in the conceptualisation and materialisation of these temporary structures, suggesting the secondary role of aesthetics when engaging with users.