Temporary Pleasure
Rave Architecture Collective
Temporary Pleasure was conceptualised in 2018 as a response to the nightlife crisis in Ireland, where the most restrictive licensing in Europe applies, and more clubs were closing than opening. Inspired by temporary clubs and DIY movements since the 1960s, founder and space-maker, John Leo Gillen, explored ephemerality as a way to dance around the red tape associated with permanent bricks and mortar spaces, and to better meet the needs and energies of cultural moments and local scenes. He imagined a club with no fixed location or time, existing only in a certain place and moment, for a few weeks or just a night, before changing shape and location again.
In 2021, when John was joined by project manager Irini Vazanellis, architect Stan Vrebos, and visual artist Jennifer Mehigan, the collective was formed. We are a rave architecture collective that designs temporary club spaces for temporary pleasure. We began with our flagship workshop, ‘What Makes a Club?’ in Barcelona. The workshop, a week-long design and build intensive, has since had numerous iterations in different cities and we continue to develop the format and structure.

The intention is to explore how space design, intersecting with multiple art forms, has a direct influence on the experience and energy of a club. We do this by gathering a group of 20 or so participants who come from different backgrounds and callings. We believe collective design breeds collective experiences. We blend architects with multimedia artists, DJs, promoters, producers, builders, community leaders, and movers, to create a club from scratch.
We guide the process by breaking down club design into three fundamental areas – Space, Programme, and Ethos – and asking the following questions:
Space: What houses the club, where do the dancers go, where do performers go, where do we rest, how does the traffic flow to the bar or the toilets, how do we allow for the different energies of the audience and artists, how does material choice transfer a certain feeling?
Programme: What happens in the club, who performs and why, when and how do things take place, and what is the intended flow of energy throughout the day/night?
Ethos: Why are we here, what is the spirit of this club, in what socio-political context does it exist, what do we stand for, what will not be tolerated, what will be encouraged, and how do we communicate all of this online and in the space with limited time?
The culmination of a week’s work of designing and building is a 12-hour celebration where the energy of the workshop participants is shared with a wider public. Communicating the group’s intentions for the enjoyment of the space can be challenging and is where we most lean on visual art. It’s a fun, intense experience, and it’s simply a pleasure to see a huge group of people dancing in a space you have created with your friends. Then, it disappears, dies, changes shape, and waits to be born again.

We think a lot about not only what we have filled the space with, but also what is left behind after it’s gone. There are of course the materials and structure, which our architect Stan selects and designs with a sensitivity to buildability, material cycles and reuse. And there is the energetic footprint we left behind with the workshop, which we optimistically hope has a ripple effect, beginning with the 20 workshop participants, the performers, and the people who enjoyed the club when it was briefly open.
Architecture, visual art, and music intertwine in most of what we do, and when we imagine projects, we rarely exclude any of the three disciplines. We do this in our own projects and when designing for others, and love connecting with multidisciplinary creatives in the different cities we have the pleasure of working in. In 2024, Temporary Pleasure is an architecture, design and production collective operating in Brussels, Berlin, and Barcelona. We are exploring commercial work, club scenography for local scenes, and bringing the club to unexpected places. See you on the dancefloor.
Temporary Pleasure is a rave architecture collective that designs temporary club spaces.
temporary-pleasure.com