Pop-up retail might have begun as an inspired necessity emerging from the global financial crisis, but the fun and efficacy of temporarily transforming a space is catching and quickly becoming a way to perk up abandoned warehouses and shipping containers or brighten up highly trafficked yet otherwise empty streetscapes. It began in the late 2000's and has now become a sustainable, exciting way for companies to refresh their brand – or for up-and-coming artisans who have little start-up capital.
The sentiment is echoed by ORE Design + Technology, an architecture firm that works closely with UrbanSpaces on commissioned pop-ups, including the Dekalb Market (where stalls came in the form of reused shipping containers) some years ago when pop-ups were first broaching the retail space. Spurred on by the global financial crisis, pop-ups sprung from necessity – using empty spaces at a minimal cost to retailers. “It’s almost like an event or a festival,” said architect Thomas Kosbau. “It needs to be built quickly and disassembled quickly. In no other form of architecture do you design for how quickly the structure has to be disassembled.”
