This conference brings together scholars, practitioners, historians, and those working in interdisciplinary fields, to explore the significance of the unbuilt to the built environment.

From visionary utopias and speculative designs to unrealised commissions and abandoned plans, unbuilt projects for the built environment offer rich material for critical inquiry. Remaining fixed to the page (or screen), or to the model-makers' benches, unmade proposals can help shape discourse, influence practice, and reflect—or react against—the cultural, political, and technological contexts of their time. Some may have been designed from the outset as capricci, and, therefore, were never meant to be made; some find their home within iterative design processes; and others have suffered the disappointing hand of rejection or abandonment. Other spaces are intentionally—or unintentionally—unbuilt: via demolition, rewilding, or 'blank’. All tell manifold stories.

Contributions examining the conceptual, aesthetic, and ideological dimensions of unbuilt work are sought, as well as the role of the unbuilt in pedagogy, conservation, and digital (re)construction. Funded by the British Academy's Early Career Research Network, it is designed to bridge the gap between senior scholars and practitioners and those embarking on their careers.

Keynote: Tim Mowl, Emeritus Professor in the History of Architecture & Designed Landscapes, University of Bristol