Study day organised by ENSA Paris-Est and the LAB research institute at the Catholic University of Louvain.

Organised through an inter-university partnership between the Observatoire de la condition suburbaine (OCS) laboratory at ENSA Paris-Est and the LAB research institute at the Catholic University of Louvain, the study dayThe Materialities of the Ephemeral City examines, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the materialities of temporary urban installations created for celebrations, festivals, events or protests: lightweight, demountable structures, performative installations, street furniture, scenography and performances created using ‘soft materials’ such as plants, sand, edible products, screens, bodies and phenomena (light, sound, optical effects). The guiding hypothesis is that the ‘ephemeral city’ is first and foremost a city of materials, reconfiguring the use of streets and squares and shifting the canonical definitions of architecture. The study day will examine the political and symbolic agency of these “weak materials”, their sensory phenomenologies, the collective rituals of making and unmaking, as well as the traces, waste and ecologies they generate. Conceived as a critical laboratory, the conference will feature contributions spanning different periods and geographies, with a view to illuminating how these material assemblages celebrate, challenge or subvert the urban order, and how they offer alternatives to the dominant rhythms of the contemporary city.

Program

9:30 a.m: Welcome

9:40 a.m.-10:00 a.m: IN PRACTICE: Léone Drapeaud – Traumnovelle

10:00 a.m.-11:20 a.mMATTER IN ACTION

Bart Tritsmans, University of Antwerp
Urban spaces as temporary interiors of activism

Aurore Damoiseaux, University of Brighton in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Soft materials for protest: ephemeral domesticity at Greenham Common

Leonie Link, Bauhaus-University Weimar
Ornamental Agency, On Textiles, Publics and Urban Surface

11:20 a.m.-11:40 a.m.: IN PRACTICE: Peter Behrbohm

11:10 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: Coffee break

11:50 a.m.-13:10 p.m.: MATTER IN COMMAND

Jonas Klaasse, Institute of Architecture Technology at Graz University of Technology; Noemí Gómez Lobo, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos; Diego Martín Sánchez, Cultural Landscape Research Group, Technical University of Madrid
Ephemeral Monumentality: Material Politics and the Urban Staging of Power in Modern Spain

Taylor Van Doorne, University of California, Santa Barbara
Fragile Histories, Mutable Futures, and Ephemeral Monuments in Post-Revolutionary Paris

Dubravka Botica, University of Zagreb
The Royal Adventus to Zagreb in 1818: A Festival of Light and Ephemeral Architecture

Tania Levy, Université de Bretagne Occidentale
Reuse and dissemination of the ideal city. What remains of a royal entry after it

1:10 p.m.-2:00p p.m.: Lunch break

2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.: MATTER IN URBANISM

Chiara Pradel, TU Delft
Material Yards, Ephemeral Landscapes of Materials Recovery

Nathalie Donat-Cattin, University of Bologna
Edible Cities. Dieter Roth and the Material Life of the Ephemeral

Marion Boisset, ENSA Paris-Est
In-Between Urbanism: Open Spatial Conditions in Berlin-Lichtenberg

Tuliza Sindi, Carnegie Mellon University; Miliswa Ndziba, room19isaFactory., What Has Two Eyes and Too Many Ears?, University of Johannesburg
Wesleyville Mission Miracles: An Interrupted Broadcast

3:30 p.m.-3:50 p.m.: IN PRACTICE: Laura Salazar, Pablo Sequero and Juan Medina – salazarsequeromedina

4:00 p.m.-5:35 p.m.: MATTER IN PLAY

Leonardo Dias, University of Porto
The Fishing Scene. Blessing the Cod Fleet in Lisbon, 1936-1973

York Bing Oh, University of Antwerp
Inhabiting the urban: case study #1km-together-at-the-table

Berk Bulut & Utku Kan, Middle East Technical University
Setting Up, Celebrating, and Taking Down: The Materiality of Street Weddings as Ephemeral Urban Assemblages in Turkey

Vincenzo Moschetti, Sapienza University of Rome
The Fifth Ecology. Los Angeles and the Ephemeral 1984 Olympic Games

5:40 p.m.-6:00 p.m.: IN PRACTICE: Ambra Fabi – Piovenefabi

CLOSING REMARKS

Organisers

• Silvia Groaz, senior lecturer, ENSA Paris-Est - Université Gustave Eiffel
• Beatrice Lampariello, Professor, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgique

Practical informations

The event is open to the public in person at the Paris IAS (17 quai d’Anjou, 75004 Paris), or via videoconference by following this link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/323778561777430?p=C7t0WzM4l18MrmZXSb.

For further information, please contact Silvia Groaz by email: silvia.groaz@paris-est.archi.fr or ephemeral.city.2026@gmail.com