The paper investigates temporary reuse practices in empty spaces and areas that still have not found a new use and which can find temporary uses in that ‘meanwhile’ of years and often decades, which passes between old and new use. How does one start action-research projects on temporary re-use analysing foreign case studies and comparing them to your own urban reality? An initial basic analysis is performed and five common factors are identified for investigation: i) the taxonomy of abandoned or underused urban spaces; ii) the actors who use, start or relate to temporary reuse projects; iii) the various housing, work or recreational time cycles that may be activated in these spaces; iv) the three macro-levels of new infrastructure and architectural action commensurate to the type and duration of the temporary reuse of the spaces; v) and finally the rules, procedures and legal guarantees that allowed experimental temporary reuse projects to be launched.
Keywords: Temporary reuse; empty spaces; urban transformations