ABSTRACT
During the Summer of 2007 temporary or “transient” nightclubs were built in Barcelona and Lisbon (after an earlier 2006 try-out in Berlin) under the brand name Kubik. “Designed by Berlin-based urban design agency ModulorBeat and light artist Andreas Barthelmes, Kubik is built from stacked, reused water tanks [. . .] Kubik’s 275 illuminated cubes house a bar and lounge from Sunday through Wednesday, and a club from Friday through Saturday.”1 Earlier in 2007, marketing agency Herrmann International Asia together with the Australian arm of Brown-Forman Beverages Worldwide organized the SoCo Cargo Experiment, created for the Southern Comfort brand. This equally temporary club concept consisted of 12 metre long shipping containers stacked side by side and on top of each other, with adaptable interiors containing a bar, and stage and lounge areas. The container club premiered on Sydney’s Cockatoo Island in October 2006, and then popped up at festivals in Melbourne (February 2007) and Adelaide (March 2007).2 A similar re-use of shipping containers comes from Singapore-based Venue VBOX, offering clients a portable store in a shipping container, which can be set up anywhere temporarily.3 In May 2007 the Russian vodka brand Stolichnaya launched a Stoli Hotel in Los Angeles, working with different agencies such as TTC PR, Legacy Marketing Partners, and Fly Communications.4 This 10,000 square-foot “pop-up” hotel was designed and built within an empty garage or hall space, and was taken down after a month to be moved to other cities like New York, Chicago, and Miami.5 Marketing firm Trendwatching explains the growing popularity of “pop-up” retail, hotels, clubs, and other forms of consumerist leisure with the concept of “transumerism”: designing and implementing novel and innovative shopping and entertainment opportunities aimed at consumers that are always on the move, “as consumers are slowly but certainly mirroring travel behavior in daily life. After all, in our Experience Economy, the temporary, the transient, is increasingly being valued if not worshipped on a daily basis.”6
