Unbuilt: Radical Visions Of A Future That Never Arrived

by Christopher Beanland

Unbuilt tells the stories of the plans, drawings and proposals that emerged during the 20th century in an unparalleled era of optimism in architecture.

Many of these grand projects stayed on the drawing board, some were flights of fancy that couldn't be built, and in other cases test structures or parts of buildings did emerge in the real world. The book features the work of Buckminster Fuller, Geoffrey Bawa, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Archigram, as well as contemporary architects such as Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Will Alsop and Rem Koolhaas.

Richly illustrated with photographs, drawings, maps, collages and models from all over the world, it covers everything from Buckminster Fuller's plan for a 'Domed city' in Manhattan to Le Corbusier's utopian dream of skyscraper living in central Paris, from a proposed network of motorways ploughing through central London to a crazy-looking scheme for 'rolling pavements' in post-war Berlin.

This is an important book, not just for the rich stories of what might have been in our built world, but also to give understanding to the motivations and dreams of architects, sometimes to build a better world, but sometimes to pander to egos. It includes plans that pushed the boundaries – from plug-in cities, moving cities, space cities, domes and floating cities to Maglev, teleportation and rockets. Many ideas were just ahead of their time, and some, thankfully, we were always better without.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Art, Design

208 pages, Hardcover

Published September 2, 2021

Reviews

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

It reads like a city plan for an alternate-universe dystopian story, and I loved it.
I especially liked the part about Tokyo and San Francisco, since these two are the ones I'm familiar with.

e.g.:
I did NOT know that there was a proposal, aka "Reber Plan" to build two giant dams to transform most of the San Francisco Bay into two freshwater lakes that would have destroyed the estuary as we know it.
I mean, look at this map:

Fascinating.
(cf. "John Reber: The Man Who Helped Save the Bay by Trying to Destroy It"
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?tit...)

I've also learnt that
1) Zaha Hadid is a woman (I realized my inner sexism)
2) Japan scrapped Zaha Hadid's Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium (I just hate EVERYTHING Tokyo Olympics related, so this news went over my head, I guess. Everyone knew it was a waste of money.)
Her plan looks so cool. Unlike the other boring plans, like Kuma Kengo etc. (Most of the huge buildings are designed by him. They all look the same and I'm fed up.)

(cf.
-https://www.dezeen.com/2015/07/17/jap...
-https://architizer.com/blog/practice/...)

[Peter Poletti · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gift from a friend who knows my fascination with architecture, this book features buildings, and sometimes entire cities, that never got past the decision stage. With most of them second-half of the 20th-century designs, there is an emphasis on brutalist and deconstructivist architecture. Full of fascinating drawings, reading it prompted me to often Google other structures referred to in the text--especially completed buildings by many of the same architects. Often the completed structures were derived from or tempered down from the original, grander, more ambitious designs.

I'm glad to have read this book, but I also found it a bit of wistful read because it made me realize just how much of what's planned is never achieved, not just by architects but by all of us.

[Saran Baran · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was really good?! I’m surprised it has so little reviews on here. Even if you are interested in architecture or not it was both very fun and informative read. Will refer to this book definitely in the future and recommend to my friends

[Matthew Schrage · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good reproductions of drawings, but author's commentary is insufferable...

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting book about architecture and unfinished architectural projects ! Learned a lot!
Especially about visionary ideas and Brutalism!

[camille! · Rating 3 out of 5]

charming! great for the photos and illustrations, if you want to think about weird architecture

[Aus Liebe zum Lesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der Journalist Christopher Beanland hat sich in seinem Buch „Bauwerke, die nie errichtet wurden. Gescheiterte Visionen der Architektur“ den Plänen von Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Zaha Hadid und vielen weiteren Baumeistern gewidmet.

Zu den vorgestellten Bauwerken gehören Paläste, Hochhäuser, rollende Gehsteige und ganze Stadtviertel oder Städte. Beanland zeigt Entwürfe für den Palast der Sowjets, die Hauptstadt Germania und den Stadtenwurf Motopia, in dem die Autos über den Dächern der Stadt fahren sollten. Aber auch teilweise realisierte oder mittlerweile rückgebaute Objekte, wie Magnet-Schwebebahnen oder Ringstraßen in London finden Einzug in das Buch.

Für mich war es eine spannende Reise in die Architektur, die so nicht in anderen Büchern gezeigt wird. Bei dem ein oder anderen Bauwerk hätte ich mir noch mehr Bilder gewünscht, was wohl angesichts der langen Zeitspanne, die seit der Planung teilweise zurückliegt, nicht möglich war.

Christopher Beanland zeigt die andere Seite der Architektur – die Projekte, die nicht realisiert wurden und damit auch in den seltensten Fällen Bekanntheit erlangt haben, aber dennoch absolut interessant sind.