One of many events held as part of the 2013 London Festival of Architecture, the Atlas of the Unbuilt World exhibition brought together sixty-five architectural models of future projects from thirty-nine countries – including three projects from Australian practices.
Organized by the British Council in conjunction with embassies and cultural institutions from around the world, the exhibition called for works that were not yet completed, but intended to be built. This distinction is the difference between simply imagining an alternate – unrealized world, and thinking about the world we are about to live in. In essence, it affords a snapshot into the future.
Inside the exhibition space at London’s Bartlett School of Architecture, a “three-dimensional atlas” was created with models grouped into seven geometric territories based on an abstract latitudinal and longitudinal landscape. The models offered a glimpse of the most realistic, albeit scaled-down, versions of the finished built projects. In The Inhabited Model, Charles Holland proposes that models are objects of fantasy; abstractions that induce childlike immersion. Wandering through the field of models, I found myself being immersed in this conceptual, unbuilt future.
Timber and white card dominated the exhibition.
Image: Mikael Schilling
While a variety of concepts, scales and forms were displayed, it is interesting that the materials and techniques used to make the models were uniformly similar. Timber and white card dominated the exhibition, with only a handful of 3-D printed models, despite participants being invited to submit models for on-site 3-D printing demonstrations.
The three Australian projects at Atlas of the Unbuilt World exhibition in London.
Image: Mikael Schilling
The three Australian projects were commissioned by the Australian High Commission (United Kingdom), and chosen by Cameron Bruhn (editorial director at Architecture Media) and Katelin Butler (editor of Houses magazine). It was a pleasant surprise to see the model of the competition-winning scheme by Stewart Hollenstein in association with Colin Stewart Architects for the Green Square Library and Plaza. Having followed this project from the original submission to the revised winning scheme, I came to ponder just how much a project changes from inception.
Models, physical or virtual, are used to represent the final intent of a project. With this in mind, it is interesting to consider how the built outcome lives up to the early conceptual imagery of the project. Perhaps a follow-up exhibition could revisit projects and focus on how the designs have developed or changed from inception towards completion.
The two other Australian projects were the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning by John Wardle Architects and NADAAA, and Courtyard Residence by Richard Kirk Architects. All three he Australian projects showcased the ability of our country’s designers to innovate and deliver world-class projects across varied scales and typologies.
