Triumphal Arch in honor of Alfonso XIII, on the occasion of the king's visit to Barcelona, on 6 April 1904, by Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia. Inside, the pavilion was surrounded with purple curtains, except for the spaces between the columns, adorned with skins of extraordinary variety and beauty.

Outside the columns, on three sides, there was a portico with a peristyle and vaulted ceiling, where the retinue of guests could be placed. Thus, there is a valuable testimony of a pavilion erected by Ptolemy II of Egypt to celebrate a banquet, reported by Athenaeus:įour of the columns were shaped like palm trees, while those in the center resembled thyrsus. The ephemeral constructions were especially used for public ceremonies and celebrations of military victories, or for festivities related to kings and emperors. There are few documents of constructions designed with an ephemeral duration, on the contrary, both Egyptian architecture and Greek and Roman stand out for their monumentality and the long-lasting eagerness of their constructions, especially the religious ones. The architecture that is ephemeral because of its 'eventuality'.įunerary ceremony in honor of Catherine Opalińska, mother-in-law of Louis XV of France, held in 1747 at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. In the social context there are various ways of including ephemeral architecture: for specific events (traditional ephemeral architecture), as a way of life (nomadic architecture), as a requirement of a society that reveres change (obsolescent architecture), and as a necessity (emergency architecture).

Today the ephemeral continues to fulfill these playful and experimental functions, but it also aspires to channel new ideas about public space and social participation, halfway between the city and nature. From Baroque scenographies to contemporary installations, each ephemeral period has given shape to its idea of celebration and has materialized it with the technique available at the time. It has existed since ancient art-it is at the origin of forms such as the triumphal arch, whose ephemeral model was fixed in permanent constructions during the Roman Empire-and it was very common in European courts during the Renaissance and especially in the Baroque.ĭespite its circumstantial character, the ephemeral has been a recurrent and relevant architecture. Ephemeral art has been a constant in the history of architecture, although a distinction must be made between constructions conceived for temporary use and those that, despite being built with durability in mind, have a brief expiration due to various factors, especially the poor quality of the materials (wood, adobe, plaster, cardboard, textiles), in cultures that would not have sufficiently developed solid construction systems.Įphemeral architecture was usually used for celebrations and festivals of all kinds, as scenography or theatrical scenery for a specific event, which was dismantled after the event. Japan Pavilion at the Expo 2000 in Hanover, designed by Shigeru Ban, one of the architects of the Pompidou CenterĮphemeral architecture is the art or technique of designing and building structures that are transient, that last only a short time.

Ephemeral architecture