Scaffolding installations explore ephemeral architecture in Spain

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To mark World Architecture Day, the architects' collective efimerARQ, alongside the Association of Architects and the School of Architecture of Valladolid, developed a design exercise involving collaboration between students and professionals. The activity, titled “Ephemeral Architecture as a Pedagogical Device,” took place at the Patio Herreriano Museum of Contemporary Art in Valladolid, Spain, aiming to create an open-air classroom that allowed students to study current and past trends through fieldwork, viewing the discipline as a medium for exploration, research, discussion, and collaboration. The base structure used to build the three installations was a fundamental "auxiliary" construction material: scaffolding.

The built installations emerged from a group workshop linking experimental processes with the development and materialization of full-scale projects. The exercise was structured around an initial theoretical introduction, followed by three days for students and professionals to exchange ideas and perspectives—grouped into three teams to develop the installations—and, finally, three days for the collective execution of the projects.

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The open model of efímerARQ was conceived by Javier Arias, Javier Blanco, Luis Pastor, Javier Sánchez, and Pedro Sánchez. Discover the three installations, in the words of their creators: 

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Museum Square / "The Hollow of the Void"

Originally, the San Benito el Real monastery was built facing the city, with its parvis bounded by the church portico and the facade of the Hospedería. However, in the late 20th century, it was split into two uses: the Hospedería Courtyard area was designated for administrative offices, while the rear section, lacking its own facade, became the Museum. Following a recent intervention, this rear space was configured into a welcoming plaza featuring flowerbeds, trees, and a shallow pool crossed by a footbridge. To evoke the memory that this area was not always this way, a scaffolded canopy wrapped in caution tape stands over the footbridge of this new space, recalling the decades after its demilitarization when it was left as a forgotten, dilapidated, and neglected corner—an ephemeral witness to another era. The skeletal scaffolding structure takes the form of an apparent cube through woven standard warning tape, creating a canopy over the footbridge that invites museum visitors to stage various improvised activities.

Cloister / "Zig Zag"

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The Cloister of the Concepción (Patio Herreriano) features a powerful composition of arches and vaults, serving as a prominent centerpiece that organizes the museum's circulation. While it originally organized the various monastic rooms, today it no longer provides access to the San Benito church; consequently, three sides of the cloister have been transformed into exhibition spaces rather than thoroughfares. Thus, the design highlights this corridor condition on the fourth side, which connects the museum galleries. The scaffolding structure aims to define a path without interfering with the permanent main architecture, presenting a contrasting, zigzagging, and intricate route to be walked through or bypassed along the sides. 

Room 8 / "I'll Huff and I'll Puff" 

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The story of "The Three Little Pigs," besides being a universal children's fable, has long been a staple reference in architectural education. This installation aims to suggest a mental image of each of the three houses, which visitors will idealize based on their own personal experience of "home." The scaffolding metaphor is built around three abstract models of the house archetype (massive, empty, and inverted), going beyond the eccentricity of this displacement or attention-grabbing gesture, reminiscent of artists like Erwin Wurm or Dennis Oppenheim (who designed the monument to cinema in this city). The installation consists of three structures of weathered scaffolding wrapped in thin painter's plastic—common, everyday materials familiar to everyone. Within these three houses, contemporary architectural concerns are projected via videos, featuring choreographies centered on each material from the original fable. 

The installation was also designed to host a retrospective exhibition organized by the Association of Architects of Valladolid, showcasing key works of ephemeral architecture created by local architects in recent years. These projects focused on experimenting with and researching potential spatial and formal qualities using a wide variety of materials. This posed the challenge of establishing a dialogue between the installation and the exhibition regarding gallery space utilization, overall lighting, and visitor flow. It was important to prevent the scaffolding from obstructing the view of the panels, which were placed on the perimeter walls at eye level. While lighting both elements could have created conflict, the objective was precisely the opposite: seamless integration. 

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