Phantom Architecture
by Philip Wilkinson /
2017 / English / PDF
209.1 MB Download
A skyscraper one mile high, a dome covering most of downtown
Manhattan, a triumphal arch in the form of an elephant: some of the
most exciting buildings in the history of architecture are the ones
that never got built. These are the projects in which architects
took materials to the limits, explored challenging new ideas,
defied conventions, and pointed the way towards the future. Some of
them are architectural masterpieces, some simply delightful flights
of fancy. It was not usually poor design that stymied them -
politics, inadequate funding, or a client who chose a `safe' option
rather than a daring vision were all things that could stop a
project leaving the drawing board. These unbuilt buildings include
the grand projects that acted as architectural calling cards,
experimental designs that stretch technology, visions for the
future of the city, and articles of architectural faith. Structures
like Buckminster Fuller's dome over New York or Frank Lloyd
Wright's mile-high tower can seem impossibly daring. But they also
point to buildings that came decades later, to the Eden Project and
the Shard. Some of those unbuilt wonders are buildings of great
beauty and individual form like Etienne-Louis Boullee's enormous
spherical monument to Isaac Newton; some, such as the city plans of
Le Corbusier, seem to want to teach us how to live; some, like El
Lissitsky's `horizontal skyscrapers' and Gaudi's curvaceous New
York hotel, turn architectural convention upside-down; some, such
as Archigram's Walking City and Plug-in City, are bizarre and
inspiring by turns. All are captured in this magnificently
illustrated book.
A skyscraper one mile high, a dome covering most of downtown
Manhattan, a triumphal arch in the form of an elephant: some of the
most exciting buildings in the history of architecture are the ones
that never got built. These are the projects in which architects
took materials to the limits, explored challenging new ideas,
defied conventions, and pointed the way towards the future. Some of
them are architectural masterpieces, some simply delightful flights
of fancy. It was not usually poor design that stymied them -
politics, inadequate funding, or a client who chose a `safe' option
rather than a daring vision were all things that could stop a
project leaving the drawing board. These unbuilt buildings include
the grand projects that acted as architectural calling cards,
experimental designs that stretch technology, visions for the
future of the city, and articles of architectural faith. Structures
like Buckminster Fuller's dome over New York or Frank Lloyd
Wright's mile-high tower can seem impossibly daring. But they also
point to buildings that came decades later, to the Eden Project and
the Shard. Some of those unbuilt wonders are buildings of great
beauty and individual form like Etienne-Louis Boullee's enormous
spherical monument to Isaac Newton; some, such as the city plans of
Le Corbusier, seem to want to teach us how to live; some, like El
Lissitsky's `horizontal skyscrapers' and Gaudi's curvaceous New
York hotel, turn architectural convention upside-down; some, such
as Archigram's Walking City and Plug-in City, are bizarre and
inspiring by turns. All are captured in this magnificently
illustrated book.