Around the world, a new architectural form is emerging. In public places a progressive architecture is being commissioned to promote open-ended, undetermined, lightly programmed or un-programmed interactions between people. This new phenomenon of architectural form – Pavilions, Pop-Ups and Parasols – is presaged by rapidly changing social relationships flowing from social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The nexus between real and virtual meeting is effectively being reinvented by innovative and creative architectural practices. People meet in new and responsive ways, architects meet their clients in new forums, knowledge is ‘met’ and achieved in new and interactive frameworks. It contrasts bluntly with the commercially structured interactions of shopping malls and the increasingly deliberate interactions available in cultural institutions. These experiences imbue a new type of client; casually engaged, flocking, hacking, crowd funding and self-helping.

Contributors include: Rob Bevan, Pia Ednie-Brown, Roan Ching-Yueh, Dan Hill, Martyn Hook, Minsuk Cho, Andrea Kahn, Felicity Scott, Akira Suzuki

Contributing architects include: Alisa Andrasek/Biothing, Peter Cook/CRAB studio, CJ Lim/Studio 8, Tom Holbrook/5th Studio, Matthias Hollwich/HWKN, Mamou-Mani Architects, Benedetta Tagliabue/EMBT