Infrastructuring Pop-Up Cities with "Social Layer": Designing Serendipitous Co-Livings for Temporary Intentional Communities

TL;DR

This paper explores the design and deployment of 'Social Layer', an unconferencing system that facilitates spontaneous, serendipitous interactions within temporary pop-up city communities, balancing structure and openness.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of 'scaffolded spontaneity' and provides design insights based on real-world deployments of the system in various international locations.

Findings

Infrastructural affordances enable spontaneous interactions while maintaining privacy.

'Scaffolded spontaneity' balances structure with openness in pop-up communities.

Design implications for future pop-up city systems.

Abstract

After the pandemic, a new form of "pop-up city" has emerged -- co-living gatherings of 100-200 people for 4-8 weeks that differ from conferences and hack houses. These temporary intentional communities leverages existing urban infrastructure, blending daily life (housing, meals, care) with self-organized activities like learning, creating, and socializing. They coordinate bottom-up programming through an "unconference" system for identity, calendaring, RSVP, and social discovery that fosters spontaneous, serendipitous, enduring ties. This paper examines the design of "Social Layer," an unconferencing system for pop-up cities. We studied its real-world deployment in ShanHaiWoo (Jilin, China, 2023), muChiangmai (Chiangmai, Thailand, 2023), Edge Esmeralda, Edge Esmeralda (Healdsburg, CA, USA, 2024), Aleph (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2024), and Gathering of Tribe (Lisbon, Portugal, 2024). Our findings distill: (1) the strong concept "scaffolded spontaneity" -- infrastructural affordances that balance structure with openness, amplifying participant agency while maintaining privacy and lightweight governance; (2) design implications for design researchers working on pop-up cities.