architectural ghosts

Buildings inherently carry significant meaning, often serving as monuments to architects and rulers rather than the common people. In some cases, they embody intricate social plans and visions of an ideal society. For years, I've nurtured the concept of an exhibition solely featuring buildings that either no longer exist or were never realized. These structures might have succumbed to wars, disasters, regime changes, or modernization, left neglected and forgotten. Conversely, they could be products of visionary plans that remained unrealized or bold fantasies deemed too extravagant for construction. In this imaginative journey, I explore my own whimsies, contemplating scenarios like the workers' movement erecting the "tallest communal buildings in the world" or collaborative efforts between historical figures like Louis XIV and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi on monumental structures. Childhood fantasies, such as having an endless supply of Lego bricks, inspire playful architectural musings through photo collages. Beyond the tangible, I'm captivated by buildings that never materialized. Typically accompanied by conceptual designs or models, I mimic the design process by creating drawings from the original drafts. These drawings are transformed into stencils, hand-cut, and affixed to lightboxes, offering viewers a glimpse inside the unrealized structures. Curved lightboxes enhance the three-dimensional effect, arranged uniformly (60x40cm) in a grid, providing details on location, caption, and legend. The exhibition serves as a dual exploration—into vanished or unrealized structures and the realms of historical losses, missed opportunities, and imaginative what-ifs in architecture.