The history of architecture is filled with remarkable unrealized hypotheses, whether due to infeasibility, conceptual radicalism, or other specific factors. Even when conceived by the field's most prestigious minds, these ideas never overcame the inevitable constraints of material reality, nor could they be adapted to make them viable, even partially. Yet, the significance of these projects goes beyond the tangible. Beyond enriching the profession's intellectual heritage, these once-abandoned proposals were—and still are—a catalyst for reflection and a source of inspiration for diverse artistic approaches.
The colossal, three-kilometer-wide geodesic dome proposed by R. Buckminster Fuller in 1960 to shield Manhattan from winter weather remained, as a buildable object, confined to the American architect's drawing board. Years later, Fuller's dome was revisited as the starting point for novelist Ben Bova's dystopian novel City of Darkness (1976), set in a country covered by similar massive structures.
In 2019, Italian comic artist Manuele Fior fictionalized architectural history in his award-winning graphic novel Celestia, which is set on an island of the same name. Clearly a version of the author's hometown of Venice, the setting is framed not only by Gothic and Renaissance buildings—faithfully depicted based on their real-world counterparts—but also by the unusual presence of structures that each hint at a backstory of their own.
