Temporary structures, such as scaffolding, barriers, and building sites, ensure the functioning of multiple processes, from construction and deconstruction to maintenance, guidance, and protection. Temporary Tecture presents a new perspective on this type of contemporary vernacular architecture—often overlooked in both public and professional discourse, despite its omnipresence. This new approach reveals that these “structures of necessity” provide an architectural language from which architects can learn in terms of adaptability, use of local resources, circular economy, and conceptual radicalism. Ultimately, it raises the question: How permanent should architectural solutions be in a continuously changing world?

• With contributions by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Jan De Vylder and Philip Ursprung
• Numerous photographs of global, temporary structures

KOSMOS is a team of architects based in Zurich and Graz with an artistic and research-based practice.