This paper examines temporary reuse as a creative appropriation or re-appropriation of existing spaces. Loose spaces are considered both as vacant spaces or spaces of potentiality and the interstitial practices as both critical and imaginative forces that actively contribute to the production of social space. Temporary interventions assert their topicality by transforming these spaces and integrating them in public spaces. Two case studies in Berlin exemplify the role of temporary uses in the contemporary debate on urban competitivity and the creativity classes; they highlight the way in which these temporary uses can represent strategic and innovative aspects of a more complex and a long term urban regeneration process.
Keywords: Public spaces, temporary reuse, social practices, vacant spaces, reinvention, rege-neration.