TEMPORARY PLACE OF ASSEMBLY: CERTIFICATE OF OPERATION

This title is borrowed from the New York City Department ofBuilding’s Temporary Place of Assembly Certificate of Operation(TPA) authorization ‘for temporary premises’ where members ofthe public gather for religious, recreational, educational, politicalor social purposes, or to consume food or drink. The Certificateof Operation exists as a shorter-lived relative of the Certificate ofOccupancy, granted at the completion of building construction.While the architect’s legal and professional status in the TemporaryPlace of Assembly (TPA) permit in practice primarily concernsquestions of life safety via fire egress and sanitation, the criteriaused to define assembly suggest a sense of scale in time and space,united through action – number of people (more than 200, whenoutdoors), length of time (less than 30 days), and the presenceof a collective act (religious, recreational, educational, politicalor social). How is ‘place’ assembled or made through this timeduration, through a shared purpose in otherwise undeterminedenvironments?

Volume Editors
Urs Peter Flueckiger & Victoria McReynolds

ISBN
978-1-944214-16-6