Arts and Education

Abstract

Perhaps the most important (yet most difficult to evaluate) feature of portable architecture is the reaction that it creates in those who experience it. Practical benefits are relatively easy to understand once they are quantified, however, the way in which people respond to the temporary characteristics of structures they are accustomed to thinking of as permanent is complex. Portable buildings can do almost anything that permanent ones can and they are also frequently capable of fulfilling other functions that would be impossible by any other means. Portable buildings have a low environmental impact; they may be located in rural or urban situations with minimal long-term effects. They can make use of a temporary identifiable address that is of value to both the operator and the visitor in that high-profile locations can be used to increase the numbers of people reached in a given time period. Unusual building forms that are temporarily sited in familiar settings can also change people’s view of their environment and give some the impetus to appreciate its positive and negative attributes more clearly.