This month we’ve picked out Our Favourite…..Buildings that were never built. Some of the most inspiring architecture has never made it past the drawing board.
In this blog, we’re sharing a few of our favourite unbuilt projects — designs that captured bold ideas, big ambitions, and a real sense of possibility. From a reimagined entrance to Sheffield, to futuristic visions for Barnsley. These are the buildings we really wish we could have visited in real life.
paul
Sheffield Festival Centre
Carmody Groarke
“This is a competition I entered with the practice I worked at at the time. The winning scheme was from at the time, a fairly unknown practice. But now Carmody Groarke have gone on to deliver some amazing buildings since.”
“This extension to the Showroom/Workstation in Sheffield would have been an amazing addition to the entrance to the city.”
“More than that, though, the competition held in 2007 harks back to the last time I feel there was so much optimism in the city and the country – in the heady days before the 2008 economic crash.”
liam
Barnsley Masterplan
will alsop
“My favourite project that was never built is Will Alsop’s plan to turn Barnsley into a Tuscan-esque village by building an absolutely bonkers wall of futuristic tower blocks with an interconnected ariel walkway.”
“Millions was spent of public money to masterplan it, but the closest it ever came to being realised was in model form. Possibly for the best?”
alan
Ant & Bee
Denizen works & arrant land
“I love the work of both the Architects, Denizen Works and the Developers, Arrant Land. This project is no different.”
“Denizen won planning for a pair of houses on a brownfield site next to a nature reserve – what an ideal location! “
“Following planning the site was sold with planning permission by Arrant Land. There are some lovely sketches and contextual analysis that accompanies this project – no doubt key to winning the planners over. “
elena
The Fun Palace
Cedric Price
“I love it because it was a radical idea rooted in the postmodern philosophy of the 1960s — a flexible, ever-changing space shaped by the people who used it. With no fixed function, it challenged traditional notions of what a building could be.”
“Even though it was never realised, it still influences how we think about public spaces, flexibility, and user participation.”
josh
Garden Bridge
heatherwick studio
“Despite my reservations, the Garden Bridge would have been a structure that I would have loved to have experienced and explored for it’s structural ingenuity, craftsmanship and minute considered detailing.”
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