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Temporal Architecture

Concept and Field of Inquiry

Temporal architecture is the art and science of designing, creating, analyzing, and using the music-like patterns that form when multiple actions and processes are aligned, synchronized, superimposed, or otherwise related to each other in time. The life span of these patterns, which have the vertical and horizontal structure of a musical score, can vary from seconds to years. Temporal architecture includes the study of the functions or purposes that these patterns serve, the qualities and meanings they express, the emotions they provoke, the intentions they realize or resist, and perhaps most important for the practical actor, the actions that they make possible or prohibit. In contrast to spatial architecture and like the structures of the human brain and body, the designs of temporal architecture are rarely visible on the surface. They are not part of what we usually see. They are not part of what we usually think about when we plan our actions. As a general rule, we include only fragments of these designs in our descriptions of the world.

The field of temporal architecture is related to that of spatial architecture. Vitruvius defined the classic functions of spatial architecture as firmitatus, utilitatis, and venustatis. Firmitatus is structure—buildings must stand up. Utilitatis means that buildings must serve a useful purpose; venustatis, that buildings should be beautiful. They should have a pleasing appearance. The patterns of temporal architecture serve similar functions. They must support or house different actions, events, and activities. They must last long enough to do so. They should also feel right. The right temporal pattern will have an esthetic quality as well as an instrumental use.

Goethe famously referred to traditional architecture as “frozen music.” That phrase also captures the patterns of temporal architecture. The difference is that rather than being literally set in stone—that is, frozen, as is the case with traditional architecture—the patterns of temporal architecture describe a process that, like music, develops and changes over time. If we “unfreeze” music and let it play, then music is time made audible,¹ capturing the twin features of human temporal experience: the possibility of simultaneity and the requirement of succession.