Scaffolding is part of the cityscape until it disappears again. So too are protective canopies over pavements, temporary walkways and barriers: they redirect routes, secure building sites and make repairs possible in the first place. They are rarely considered architecture. The Architekturzentrum Wien is now devoting an exhibition to these structures, “Temporary. Structures of Necessity” – and asking a question that reaches beyond the provisional: what can permanent construction learn from them?
The exhibition opens on 4 November and is on view from 5 November 2026 to 5 April 2027 in Exhibition Hall 2 of the Architekturzentrum Wien. The concept and design are by KOSMOS architects. According to the institution, the practice has spent years exploring such purpose-built structures and collecting examples of an infrastructure that usually remains in the background.
The city’s quiet layer
Temporary does not mean incidental. Wherever construction, demolition and maintenance take place, there is a need for crossings, protection and guidance. These structures perform specific tasks in public space: they keep passageways open, screen off hazardous areas or enable work to proceed while the rest of the city’s rhythm continues. They are not merely a backdrop to urban development, but part of the conditions that allow it to function.
The very lack of attention they receive is revealing. These structures emerge wherever something is being changed or repaired and, ideally, disappear once they are no longer needed. KOSMOS architects bring these anonymous technical infrastructures together under the term “tectures”: not as individual designs with high-profile authorship, but as built responses to a specific situation. This brings an everyday, often collectively developed form of construction into focus.
Speed comes with conditions
The appeal of the provisional lies in its responsiveness. A temporary structure must be readily available, functional and capable of being assembled and dismantled; it often has to adapt to changing spatial conditions. This does not automatically equate to sustainability: temporary structures also require materials, transport and labour. What matters, then, is not the label “temporary”, but how precisely a structure fulfils its purpose and what happens to its components after use.
This is where the exhibition introduces its broader architectural question. According to the Architekturzentrum Wien, such structures can serve as a laboratory: they reveal how construction responds to short-term needs and how time, resources and changing conditions can be incorporated into design. For permanent buildings, this would not simply imply a requirement to remain perpetually provisional. The more interesting question is whether they can anticipate change – for instance through adaptable uses and structures that are easier to alter or dismantle.
What remains when the temporary structure disappears?
The title “Temporary. Structures of Necessity” draws attention to a tension: a structure may be intended only for a limited set of circumstances and yet perform a fundamental service for the city. The same applies to its consequences. When the temporary structure is dismantled, questions remain about material consumption, reuse and the organisation of public space.
The exhibition thus promises no simple blueprint for the architecture of tomorrow. Instead, it takes seriously a category that mediates between planning and everyday life: building out of immediate necessity. How far its adaptability can be transferred to permanent architecture will be one of the questions with which the exhibition in Wien begins.
Original reviewed by the editors · 3 November 2026
