Book excerpt: In both the past and present, what motives have led to the building of temporary stages in urban space? This book examines the various disciplines - such as architecture, the theatre, or urban planning - in building temporary structures over time. A special focus lies on the BMW Guggenheim Lab and the Syntopic Salon, which were both located in Berlin in Summer 2012. As cooperative formats, they represented the interaction of academic and cultural institutions, private economy, and multidisciplinary professionals. The book discusses the result of this cooperation between extremely diverse protagonists.