on site review 43: architecture and time 

from the call for articles: What is the acceptable durée for architecture? Is it found in construction, or form, or program? Is the temporary a material issue, or is it about occupation? Can a rental suite be considered temporary architecture, no matter how long the physical space has existed? The use of space might be temporary, or the construction of the space itself, such as a Oxfam tent, might be designed to be short-lived.

Sometimes a shoddy building stands on into its second century, beyond all reasonable expectations. How does this happen? Is its use, its symbolic function, part of its material persistence?

Sometimes a solidly-built building runs out of programmatic functionality and is let go, a ruin before its time.

So, what is the acceptable, or the probable, or the unfair durée for architecture?

in this issue:

On Site review 43: on time. A fragmentary introduction. Stephanie White set the theme for this issue, thinking of the concept of the longue durée, looking at architecture not as a series of single spectacular buildings, but as an accumulation of a complex set of events of all kinds over a longer period of time, of which architecture is a part. Modernism is, she feels, one of those long accumulations.

Beyond Throwaway Architecture. Time as a political act. Stefano Corbo, of TUDelft, writes specifically of re-used and re-occupied buildings. Material is conserved, programs adjusted, accommodation of new use ensues.

The Afterlives of Temporary Architecture. Brian Holland, who teaches at the University of Arkansas, writes about the piggybacking of building materials usually thrown away onto new programs and further uses. He codifies this process into reuse – recovering waste, borrowing: pre-empting waste, and doing double duty, all which lead to a radical resourcefulness.

Architecture, Entropy and Temporariness. Tim Ingleby, of Northumbria University, does a series of experiments based on Heinz Isler's work in shell structures. He does them in the winter on a frozen lake somewhere in Quebec. From this he takes lessons in agility, adhocism and additive redundancy.

What We Build Together, Material expression of ritual and care in southern Chile. Some industries are thousands of years old; fishing with nets and weirs is one. Brittany Giunchigliani in this case study looks at the resilience of small fishers and seaweed harvesters in Chile, and their interface with markets, transport and local conditions.

Temporary is a collage of word definitions, observations and images of temporary housing by Anne O'Callaghan, a multi-media artist in Toronto.

Engaging With Difficulty. Stephanie White writes a short notice about the book Building Critique, Architecture and its Discontents, specifically its chapter by Lisa Fior of muf.

Formalising Tirana. Suzanne Harris-Brandts in Ottawa and Ervin Goci in Tirana write about the self-built 05 Maji community on the northern edge of Tirana, started in the early 1990s. Property informality is key here, vulnerable to political change.

Architecture Passes. Noticing Entropy, Anxiety and Indeterminacy. Tiago Torres-Campos on Virginia Woolf watching dust fall on a windowsill. From small moments in time comes beautiful, complex novels such as To The Lighthouse she wrote in 1927, and beautiful, complex essays about it, such as this one.

Lee's Food Market, an unlikely story of longevity. Edmonton architect and historical resources consultant, David Murray considers why some fairly humble pieces of architecture last longer than grander designs, and finds a multi-generational family history of immigration, hard work and finding place and community.

The Ethics of Lasting, Middleton Inn revisited. James Moses, an architect in Massachusetts, writes about Clark and Menefee's beautiful Middleton Inn, built in 1985 in Charleston, South Carolina. He finds a problematic history in the site, and considers its impact on how we think about the architecture on it.

45 High Street, Reading, Massachusetts. Jeffrey Olinger writes about the urban uncanny where all things are temporal. Specifically, an under-realised flatiron site and the thinking behind the new building that Olinger Architects did for it.

The Short Life of Two Tiny Buildings, Edmonton, Alberta Are some good, sound buildings too small to last? David Murray finds two.

Dust Breeding. Small, slow landscapes.

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