Temporary City Research Articles

Public health aspects of the world’s largest mass gathering: Kumbh Mela 2019 Prayagraj Uttar Pradesh, India

The influx of large numbers of people to mass gathering events may give rise to specific public health risks. Kumbh-Mela is internationally famous religious mass gathering. It creates the substantial challenge of creating a temporary city in which millions of pilgrims/visitors can stay for a defined period of time. The arrangements need to allow this very large number of people to reside with proper medical services, adequate supplies of food, electricity, waste disposal, clean water and transportation etc. Understanding the Kumbh-Mela can highlight the health challenges faced and provide the crucial lessons for the management of mass gatherings.

Temporary urbanism as a new policy strategy: a contemporary panacea or a trojan horse?

ABSTRACT Over the last two decades, temporary uses of space are spreading in Europe as a new policy tool to recover vacant areas. The theoretical debate is divided between the promoters of these new forms of tailor-made urbanism and the detractors, who argue that temporary urbanism is increasingly subject to profit logic as an urban policy strategy. Through two French case studies (The ‘Grands Voisins’ in Paris and the ‘Transfer Project’ in Nantes), the article discusses the characteristics of temporary urban planning and its intrinsic tension between a contemporary panacea and a trojan horse. Can the ‘temporary city’ be a partial response to the issues of social inclusion, housing, and equal accessibility to spaces and amenities, which the contemporary city seems to fail in? Or is temporary urbanism just an alibi for administrations and local leaders to continue perpetrating neoliberal policies?

Digitalization of city and digital copetencies of citizens

The article is aimed to analyse the tendencies of digital transformation of the temporary city. A sociological reconceptualisation of the term «smart city» is proposed, various stages in the evolution of the theoretical ideas about a smart city are distinguished. Based on empirical data, the key areas of digitalisation of the urban environment, as well as the social risks associated with these processes are identified (first of all, technostress as difficulties in adapting to a new digital reality). The article concludes with analysis of the role of the urban environment as a factor in the formation of digital competencies of citizens in everyday and professional practices.

Yasser Elsheshtawy: Temporary Cities: Resisting Transience in Arabia

Yasser Elsheshtawy: Temporary Cities: Resisting Transience in Arabia

Optimal Service Planning in a Temporary City

Temporary cities provide unique challenges in terms of urban planning and management. In particular, there are problems in terms of providing adequate service provision and ensuring an equitable access to those services. In addition, when temporary cities also involve a mass gathering for an event, there is a need for a strategic plan for managing the movement of this crowd over time. The Hajj is an annual religious event which hosts about 3 million pilgrims each year. It is the second largest annual gathering of Muslims in the world. The pilgrims reside for a number of days in the “tent city” of Mina. The organisers of the Hajj must plan the location of services to support this huge temporary population and also provide a plan to facilitate the performing of the religious rituals in an easy and safe manner (in particular to avoid overcrowding). In this paper, we estimate and map the distribution of populations across Mina during the Hajj and explore the location of existing services to investigate how well served the population is within various parts of the City. For illustrative purposes, we explore access to health centres and civil defence (mainly fire services). After analysing the current provision of these services across the City (through building suitable accessibility measures) we use a location allocation model to compare the current provision with a set of optimal, model-based locations. The model is also used to operationalise a series of what-if scenarios including reducing the number of facilities in line with increased Government concerns over escalating costs and changing demand in line with pilgrim movements throughout the day. The results of the location-allocation modelling could also help revamp staffing rotas—not only can the model provide optimal locations they can estimate the workloads associated with each facility location (based on the volume of local demand), meaning the thousands of health workers could be also located more optimally.

Commodifying Lisbon: A Study on the Spatial Concentration of Short-Term Rentals

This article explores the relationship between the spatial concentration of short-term rentals in Lisbon’s historic center and the phenomena of uneven development and tourism gentrification. By providing quantitative and qualitative evidence of the uneven geographic distribution of tourist apartments within the municipality of Lisbon, it contributes to the study of the new processes of neoliberal urbanization in the crisis-ridden countries of Southern Europe. It argues that the great share of whole-home rentals and the expansion of the short-term rental market over the housing stock are symptoms of the commodification of housing in the neoliberal city. Due to the loss of consumption capacity by the Portuguese society amid crisis and austerity, real estate developers target external markets and local households must compete for access to a limited housing stock with tourists and other temporary city users. The subsequent global rent gap stimulates the proliferation of vacation rentals at the expense of the supply of residential housing, fueling property prices and jeopardizing housing affordability. With Portugal being a peripheral member of the EU and the Eurozone, the vulnerability of local households to the impacts of tourism gentrification is aggravated by the remarkable income gap with their counterparts of the core.

Different thermal stimuli initiate hatching of Daphnia diapausing eggs originating from lakes and temporary waters

The simultaneous hatching of Daphnia resting eggs from a number of different lakes and ponds using one set of hatching cues can be difficult to achieve as environmental conditions differ considerably between water bodies. Therefore, optimal hatching conditions for ephippial eggs originating from shallow temporary waters may differ from those found in large lakes. The aim of our study was to compare the optimal thermal conditions for hatching ephippial eggs of Daphnia found in permanent lakes and those from shallow temporary ponds. We used ephippial eggs of Daphnia from the longispina species complex originating from two temporary city ponds and two deep lakes in Poland. The ephippia were protected against overheating at all stages of the field and laboratory work to prevent activation or killing of the eggs. After a refractory period (imposed storage in cool and dark conditions), ephippia were incubated at six different temperatures (6, 9, 12, 15, 18 and 21 °C) under a 16:8 L:D light regime. Our results indicate that hatching of resting eggs of Daphnia that inhabit lakes or ponds may require different thermal conditions. The hatching success of ephippial eggs originating from temporary waters was relatively high (30–56%) at all tested incubation temperatures, while for the ephippial eggs from the deep lakes it was lower (7–37%) and inversely related to water temperature. The divergent hatching responses of the ephippial eggs originating from temporary pools and lakes may reflect the typical thermal conditions during hatching in their native habitats. While in the deep lakes of the temperate zone Daphnia hatching typically occurs during the low water temperatures of early spring, in shallow ponds Daphnia hatching may occur throughout the year at varying water temperatures, from a few to over a dozen degrees Celsius.

Pop-Up Justice? Reflecting on Relationships in the Temporary City

Temporary urban interventions are increasingly visible in contemporary cities. They take diverse forms – from community gardens to pop-up cinemas, from outdoor art installations to mobile libraries – and have been given many labels – from “guerrilla” to “everyday”, “tactical” to “DIY”. A burgeoning and largely celebratory literature has highlighted ways in which these transient practices propose alternative lifestyles, reoccupy urban space with new uses, and reinvent daily life from the bottom up in the pursuit of more just and sustainable cities. This chapter moves beyond the simple celebration (or, in some cases, dismissal) that has characterised much of that literature. With communicative or collaborative approaches now dominating both planning theory and practice, the potential for temporary urban interventions to move from “guerrilla” to mainstream is increasingly apparent – and present. Within this climate there is a need to critically consider the contributions that temporary urban interventions make to processes of spatial production. Focusing on various iterations of temporary urban intervention, this chapter centres on identifying the questions necessary for such consideration. Drawing on relational theory, we explore the relationships involved in temporary urban interventions and, from these, the way in which various practices might connect to questions of justice and sustainability in the city.

Learning on the move: exploring work with vulnerable young men through the lens of movement

This paper discusses a practice context in which process and movement are central to the provision of care and support. It draws on data from a research project conducted with The Men’s Room, Manchester, England which used ethnographic and mobile methods to explore the complex task staff undertake in engaging and supporting highly vulnerable young men. The organisation’s commitment to getting alongside these young men includes a mobile and highly improvised use of temporary city centre spaces for delivering its work. In this paper, I argue that these movements of practice are not simply a logistical necessity or a physical activity, but involve a kinetic way of attending, reflecting, thinking and knowing in which the organisation’s movements are intrinsic to the provision of care and support.

Prosumption: From Parasitic to Prefigurative

During the week prior to the 2006 Labor Day weekend, explorers of Black Rock City, a temporary city in the Nevada Black Rock Desert, may have stumbled upon a handmade wooden stand. Unlike conventio...

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene at the World's Largest Mass Gathering.

The 2013 Kumbh Mela, a Hindu religious festival and the largest human gathering on earth, drew an estimated 120 million pilgrims to bathe at the holy confluence of the Ganga (Ganges) and Yamuna rivers. To accommodate the massive numbers, the Indian government constructed a temporary city on the flood plains of the two rivers and provided it with roads, electricity, water and sanitation facilities, police stations, and a tiered healthcare system. This phenomenal operation and its impacts have gone largely undocumented. To address this gap, the authors undertook an evaluation and systematic monitoring initiative to study preparedness and response to public health emergencies at the event. This paper describes the water, sanitation, and hygiene components, with particular emphasis on preventive and mitigation strategies; the capacity for surveillance and response to diarrheal disease outbreaks; and the implications of lessons learned for other mass gatherings.

Managing the Earth’s Biggest Mass Gathering Event and WASH Conditions: Maha Kumbh Mela (India)

Background: Mass gatherings including a large number of people makes the planning and management of the event a difficult task. Kumbh Mela is one such, internationally famous religious mass gathering. It creates the substantial challenge of creating a temporary city in which millions of people can stay for a defined period of time. The arrangements need to allow this very large number of people to reside with proper human waste disposal, medical services, adequate supplies of food and clean water, transportation etc. Methods: We report a case study of Maha Kumbh, 2013 which focuses on the management and planning that went into the preparation of Kumbh Mela and understanding its water, sanitation and hygiene conditions. It was an observational cross-sectional study, the field work was done for 13 days, from 21 January to 2 February 2013. Results: Our findings suggest that the Mela committee and all other agencies involved in Mela management proved to be successful in supervising the event and making it convenient, efficient and safe. Health care services and water sanitation and hygiene conditions were found to be satisfactory. BhuleBhatke Kendra (Center for helping people who got separated from their families) had the major task of finding missing people and helping them to meet their families. Some of the shortfalls identified were that drainage was a major problem and some fire incidents were reported. Therefore, improvement in drainage facilities and reduction in fire incidents are essential to making Mela cleaner and safer. The number of persons per toilet was high and there were no separate toilets for males and females. Special facilities and separate toilets for men and women will improve their stay in Mela. Conclusion: Inculcation of modern methods and technologies are likely to help in supporting crowd management and improving water, sanitation and hygiene conditions in the continuously expanding KumbhMela, in the coming years.

IDENTITY AND GLOBALIZATION: TOWARDS A THEORETICAL APPROACH THAT SUPPORTS PROVIDING URBAN PRODUCT A DISTINCTIVE URBAN IDENTITY

The temporary city, specially Arabian city faces great challenges mainly after the wide spread of globalization phenomenon and the great technology revolution and what followed that from its trial to follow this great development in the form of blind imitation, ignorance of the local features characterizing the city and importation of urban theories and legislations which are foreign from local context. What leads to deficiency of temporary city urbanism to most of the characteristics and features which provides it uniqueness and identity, furthermore, it leads to spread of Placelessness phenomenon and as a result great interest in identity issues and sense of place emerges, since urbanism (built environment) is considered open window on nations' civilization as it is the tool for cultural expression of the society in the form of tangible civil product that reflects the cultural attitudes of this society which are represented in its authentic values and traditions thus they are its goals while the city is its means and applications in real life. The science of urbanism determines life style and how it is developed socially, economically and environmentally accepted with spatial society characteristics and its cultural attitudes. The research aims at exploring the relation between identity and globalization to clarify the causes of the spread of Placelessness phenomenon in our temporary urbanism seeking to reach theoretical approach supporting the emerge of an urban product characterized by belonging to its local context and respecting spatial society characteristics and its cultural roots supporting urban identity future and keeping with scientific and technological updates.

Expo 2010: Strategic Transformation of Former Industrial Areas by Means of International Events

The transformation of former industrial areas is important to urban redevelopment, although such activity is often limited by possible on-site pollution, complicated ownership, and legal constraints. Rather than treating these areas as a problem, many cities recognize the advantages of redeveloping them because of their often central locations. Some are transformed through a temporary city event with the participation and support of external organizations and planned as a part of the urban development. This paper is an in-depth case study on the planning perspectives of Expo 2010, Shanghai, China, a regeneration project on a former industrial site. By scrutinizing the case with the details based on compiling information, contextualizing the project, and comparing the expectation and reality during the preevent, event phase, and postevent phase of the project, it is found that (1) governmental participation plays a key role in the transformation of former industrial area with city event, especially on the site where it has not completely finished its industrial activities; (2) the main motivation and significance of regenerating the former industrial area is to boost city redevelopment in the long term; and (3) a successful transformation is determined by not only the first stage from preevent to event phase but also the second stage from event to postevent phase. All these features provide a deep insight into the redevelopment of a former industrial area.

Burning Man: A Case Study of Altruism Thriving in a For-Profit Organizational Form and the Rationales for LLC-to-Nonprofit Conversion

Burning Man is a temporary city of over 50,000 citizens that exists for one week every year in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Burning Man is perhaps best known in popular culture for its celebration of interactive art, experimental community building, gift economy, and ritual burning of a large wooden structure in the shape of a man. The case study of Burning Man is used to illustrate that an altruistic organization, one that is ideologically committed to the provision of public goods and not driven by profit, can nevertheless thrive in a for-profit legal form while staying true to its mission. Depending on organization-specific conditions, the nonprofit form can be, but does not necessarily have to be, the best structure for the provision of altruism and public goods (or quasi-public goods). As an organization evolves and becomes more complex overtime, however, the organization form that best serves its mission can change as well. Still, the nonprofit form alone neither guarantees altruistic commitment nor is immune from abusive practices within the management or board of directors. This Article discusses the theories on nonprofit formation that make persuasive rationales for Burning Man’s conversion to a nonprofit structure; it also makes specific recommendations for better organizational accountability and transparency in the Project’s current and future operations.

Creative Employment and Jet Set Cities: Disentangling Causal Effects

Whether people follow jobs or jobs follow people has been a central question in urban economics for decades. Because urban leaders increasingly focus on creative jobs as a growth strategy and because temporary city visitors play an increasingly significant role in economic processes, this study addresses a modified version of this question: do air passengers follow creative jobs (the flow generation hypothesis), or do creative jobs follow air passengers (the structural advantage hypothesis). The results indicate that both processes are in operation, but at different times. Air passengers follow creative jobs during periods of national economic decline, while creative jobs follow air passengers during periods of national economic growth. These findings suggest that city leaders must adopt an urban growth strategy that evolves with changing national economic conditions.

A city without citizens: The 2010 Shanghai World Expo as a temporary city

The paper draws on field-work on the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, held from May to October 2010. The focus of the study is not Shanghai per se, but Shanghai as the site of a world event; Shanghai as a city that becomes temporarily the meeting point of various heterogeneous forces. How to approach such an object? And what does it tell us on traces in cities? While considering the different positions to approach the relationships between a mega-event and the city that hosts it, I will argue that something reminiscent to a simulated city is being tested that shows particular models for populating and circulating urban spaces.

La cittŕ contemporanea come architettura mutevole del tempo

Mobility expresses physical and immaterial relationships which act on urban design. The asystematic mobility of temporary city users and the appearance of new uses with traits of functional mixite have disrupted the historical spatial structure of cities. The randomness, the interchangeability and the predominance of empty compared to full spaces, as the effects of globalisation, are inducing architectural and urban design to adopt the principle of indetermination as a basic philosophy. Infrastructural space is an indicator of the new contemporary urban condition for which the objective is to investigate the relations between mobility, collective spaces and private spaces. The attention of the experts has shifted from buildings to routes and social spaces. New ‘zero volume architectures’ which, regardless of the density and the function, highlight the demand for a new sense of space available for multi-scalar use.

Temporary city

The program of Temporary City supplies the cooperation between the Universities of European Capitals of Culture 2010 (ECoC). In the course of the program architect, environmental, and settlement designer students of the Technical Universities of Ruhr Area, Pécs and Istanbul work together in workshops in the hosting locations.

Burning Man at Google: a cultural infrastructure for new media production

Every August for more than a decade, thousands of information technologists and other knowledge workers have trekked out into a barren stretch of alkali desert and built a temporary city devoted to art, technology and communal living: Burning Man. Drawing on extensive archival research, participant observation and interviews, this article explores the ways in which Burning Man's bohemian ethos supports new forms of production emerging in Silicon Valley and especially at Google. It shows how elements of the Burning Man world — including the building of a sociotechnical commons, participation in project-based artistic labor and the fusion of social and professional interaction — help to shape and legitimate the collaborative manufacturing processes driving the growth of Google and other firms. The article develops the notion that Burning Man serves as a key cultural infrastructure for the Bay Area's new media industries.