New Forms Taschen 073

400 m long trussed-glass hall. In the area of the Potsdamer Platz, where Mercedes-Benz, Sony and others have planned a city-within-the city (an expression that might bring to mind the ambitious plans of Kuala Lumpur or Shanghai), the architects Schneider + Schumacher have erected a temporary structure called the Info Box, intended to give residents information on the massive transformation that their city is undergoing. Because it is situated on a futurę work site, the Info Box will mevitably disappear, but its cantilevered. metallic structure announces that it has no pretensions to permanence, much as the Towell Temporary Library seems also to be ephemeral by naturę.

Ephemeral architecture is of course an inevitable part of urban expansion, but when they are successful, such buildings often have a longer life than was originally intended. It will be recalled that the Eiffel Tower was to be no morę than a grandiose modern symbol for the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris. Such f airs have generated a great deal of temporary architecture, and continue to do so in spite of their per-ilous economic equilibrium. A recent example is the Seville Expo '92, which led to the construction of a new airport terminal by Rafael Moneo, and bridges by the likes of Santiago Calatrava. Withm the fair grounds on the Cartuja island, Tadao Ando's monumental wooden Japanese pavilion stands out as an unusually audacious design. Like a great ark overlooking the Guadalquivir River and the neighboring countryside, it solved many of the problems inherent in temporary designs, while showing the Japanese af f inity for wood. Ali of this from an architect best known for his very solid concrete structures.

The pressure to provide lodging and commercial space in modern cities, and the need to be able to convert existing buildings to other uses, all plead in favor of an increasing use of inexpensive materials and intentionally ephemeral designs. It is the task of quality architects too to provide this sort of facility, which in many ways may mark the visitor's mind and spirit morę than many allegedly permanent buildings.

Pa get 78/79 Tadao Ando

Japanese Pavilion, Expo "92 Seville. Spain, 1992 Although exhibition pavilions are usualty by definition ephemeral, Tadao Ando took advantage of the 1992 Sevillc exhibition to carry out his largest scalę experiment m the use of wood, a typical Japanese materiał, but not one hc usually favors.