Since cities are subject to constant transformation processes, they can be referred to as a temporary construct. One form that picks up on this temporality is the interim use. There is no in-depth publication to date that addresses the consequences interim use has for the urban context and its residents, or for the interim users themselves. For this reason, this work examines the general and long-term relationships between a use and its surrounding environment: What contextual relevance does interim use have and how does it relate to its context?


Looking at the interactions and dependencies will help us to grasp the role of context in its spatial and spaceless form. The many components that make up the context will be defined in the course of the research.


We have chosen the case study of Hamburg, because of topicality and local research proximity, and, in order to study temporary use as a planning tool, we will consider it from the local-spatial perspective and relate it to its surrounding environment.


This was examined with the help of four points of motivation — events that significantly influenced the interim use — while we developed “context categories” from our research findings, which described the “in between” — the relationship between interim use and the local environment.