Abstract
This paper explores the resonances between stakeholder conceptions of 'meanwhile' or transient urban interiors and the notion of interiority as a mobile construct intertwined with wider social and material forces. The focus is on the positioning of these interiors in relation to broader community and neighbourhood agendas, invoking what Jill Stoner describes as a becoming exterior. Although the so-called 'meanwhile use' of vacant or sub-market-condition buildings is an increasingly common tool for activating and managing underused property assets in global cities, much of the existing discourse focuses on policy and placemaking implications rather than design dimensions. Drawing on interviews with spatial practitioners in the UK and Australia, as well as scholarly discourses, the paper positions meanwhile interiors as an emergent spatial typology involving a paradoxical desire to create, foster, and sustain communities with a foreclosed future.
Publication Date
7-29-2026
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Submitted Date
2026-02-04
Accepted Date
2026-07-20
First Page
165
Last Page
186
Recommended Citation
Smith, C. (2026). Meanwhile Interiors, Interiority and Becoming Exterior. Interiority, 9 (2), 165-186. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v9i2.1271
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