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The temporary city

Article  in  Australian Planner · September 2013

DOI: 10.1080/07293682.2013.812934

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The temporary city

a
Stewart Williams
a
School of Geography and Environmental Studies , University of Tasmania , Hobart ,
Tasmania , Australia
Published online: 09 Jul 2013.

To cite this article: Australian Planner (2013): The temporary city, Australian Planner, DOI:
10.1080/07293682.2013.812934

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 Australian Planner, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
The temporary city, Peter Bishop and Lesley Williams,
London and New York, Routledge, 2012, 248 pp.,
£105.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-67055-5, £29.99
(paperback), ISBN 978-0-415-67056-2
The Temporary City is a smart, glossy book packed
with bright images and sharp ideas. It speaks mostly
to architecture, urban design and landscape architec-
Downloaded by [University of Tasmania] at 16:26 09 July 2013
ture, but also to planning as key to the challenge of
urban development and regeneration for most (Wes-
tern) cities today. In contrast to the usual concerns of
spatial, strategic and land-use planners, however, it is
the contemporary city’s more contingent, sponta-
neous and provisional activities that are celebrated
in this book.
Research on temporary urbanism emerged from
Berlin and yet relates to post-industrial cities world-
wide (many with shrinking populations and declining
traditional economies). In looking to alternative
activities and opportunities arising, for example,
in disused spaces, temporary urbanism can be more
about consumption than production. It embraces
community initiatives and familiar matters of urban
sustainability. The Temporary City presents 68 such
case studies, drawn mostly from Europe and North
America (emphasising London in particular). In
effect, this book catalogues new and fascinating
practices with compelling insights that might other-
wise not get documented and certainly not in such a
comprehensive collection.
In its introduction (Chapter 1), The Temporary City
clearly states its aim. This book, we are told, expounds
no theoretical proposition, nor is it a manual for
practitioners. Its content bypasses extant research on
temporary housing, international expos and events,
instead reflecting on current practices. Chapters 2 and
3 discuss the context and drivers of temporary urban-
ism, respectively. Against a background of change,
ranging from the decay of ancient civilisations to a
more recent urban decline effected through postcolo-
nial exodus, the authors describe our faith in the city’s
solidity as ‘the dream of permanence’. Thus, we are
referred to Bauman’s notion of ‘liquid modernity’, in
order to comprehend the uncertainty of economic
crises, restructuring and technological change, as it
renders more land and buildings vacant, but also
enables more flexible work practices, social innovation
and cultural movements.
This book’s corpus comprises of eight chapters,
each discussing one perspective of temporary urban-
ism, with several brief, but highly illustrative case
studies. The first highlights ‘The private sector
response’ (Chapter 4), which has been quick to
identify the benefits of ‘interim’ uses of sites awaiting
development. Noted here is the emergence of inter-
mediary agencies, which have seen opportunities in
linking property developers and estate managers with
local authorities keen to realise ‘quick wins’ in the
city’s commercially riskier, marginal areas. Second
is Chapter 5’s focus on ‘Temporary arenas for
consumption’. It looks at mass consumption as
responding to temporal factors of stress and ‘nowism’,
which are enhanced by ICT and drive the desire for
real-time products, services and experiences. Similarly,
‘The city as a stage’ (Chapter 6) looks at consumption,
but within the more informal context of ‘loose space’
and ‘everyday urbanism’. This chapter includes acts of
mourning and protest, alongside the outright con-
sumption of arts and sports or leisure activities in
public space. It is particularly important in signalling a
political inflection to practices otherwise often wholly
given over to the pursuit of profits. Notably, several
case studies presented here are by Rebar (amongst
such radical collectives as RETORT and SPUR from
San Francisco).
Subsequent chapters continue in this vein. So,
instances of ‘Culture and counter-culture’ (Chapter 7)
include street art and graffiti. Still, reference to ‘an
almost indistinguishable line between culture and
counter-culture, especially when the sophisticated
urban elite is open to new experiences and eager to
commodify everything’ and the observation that
‘wider sections of society now have the luxury of
consuming culture’ (p. 126) suggests how quickly any
political edge is blunted. On ‘Activism and commu-
nity use’ (Chapter 8), a role is afforded to participa-
tion in local community initiatives that can use
private investment to deliver social goods. Chapter
9’s ‘Creative cities and the gentrification problem’
then identifies a dilemma in leveraging a creative
 2 Book Review
milieu to facilitate regeneration, which subsequently
sees its original cultural agents forced out.
The Temporary City’s concerns are creativity
and culture, which thrive more without than with
formal planning. The rigidity of zoning and master
plans is, therefore, critiqued, and more flexible,
collaborative tactics are favoured in ‘Re-imagining
the city’ (Chapter 10). Looser planning is what can
encourage transient uses that might or might not then
lead to enduring, substantial activities. In capitula-
tion, the book’s final chapter
‘The fourth dimen-
sional city’ (Chapter 11)
advocates ‘open source
planning’, which is consonant with an emphasis on
freedom and tolerance. It concludes that ‘if we want
the innovation, fluidity and flexibility that temporary
activities can give us, then we will need to relinquish
our twentieth-century notions of control’ (p. 220).
Downloaded by [University of Tasmania] at 16:26 09 July 2013
Perhaps so, but let us not forget that danger can lurk
within the delight of seeing vacant land and buildings
taken up for temporary and interim purposes, such as
‘pop-up’ malls, shops, theatres and restaurants, and
for ‘meanwhile’ uses, including the international art
installations and performances that loom large in this
book. It will likely be the other activities identified
here that prove most valuable, with the hard but
honest projects of urban agriculture, squatting,
radical arts and community activism presenting real
ways to change our contemporary landscapes for the
better.
This book will be of interest to Australian planners
and urbanists. It also notes additional relevant work,
including that on terrain vague by Sydney-based
landscape architect Helen Armstrong (2006, see also
2009, 2011). As students at my own university host a
PARK[ing] day (https://www.facebook.com/media/
set/?seta.434904763212230.87297.348085338560840
View publication stats
&type3) as part of the worldwide event (http://
parkingday.org/), temporary urbanism’s topicality an-
nounces itself. Indeed, the need for an ongoing exam-
ination of such practices, in relation to politics, policy
and planning, will, no doubt, intensify as our rapidly
urbanising world continues adjusting to global capital
(not to forget climate change and peak oil). Therefore, I
believe that The Temporary City will have a presence
and impact that endures well beyond some of the
activities that it describes.
References
Armstrong, H. 2006. ‘‘Time, Dereliction and Beauty.’’
IFLA Conference, Sydney, May 25
27. http://www.
aila.org.au.
Armstrong, H. 2009. ‘‘Reworking the Landscape Idea.’’ In
Conference Proceedings LANDSCAPE-GREAT IDEA!
X-LARCH III, edited by Lilli Licka and Eva Schwab,
13
26. Vienna: ILA BOKU, April 29
May 1.
Armstrong, H. 2011. ‘‘Re-Enchanting the Industrial in the
City.’’ In Proceedings 3rd International Subtropical
Cities Conference: Beyond Climate Change, edited by
Anthony Abbate, Kasama Polakit and Rosemary
Kennedy, Fort Lauderdale: Florida Atlantic University.
March 8
11, http://www.subtropicalcities2011.com/
pdf2/80%20Armstrong.pdf.
Stewart Williams
School of Geography and Environmental Studies,
University of Tasmania, Hobart,
Tasmania, Australia
Stewart.Williams@utas.edu.au
# 2013, Stewart Williams
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07293682.2013.812934