Unbuilt Architecture and City Plans

Unbuild Brussels
End 1960s came a Plan to install a office complex north of city center
sadly it became megalomaniacal nightmare:

PLAN MANHATTAN

Original planned as World Trade Center near North railway station.
it soon Mutated to Belgium version of Paris La Defence,
Thanks to ambitious officials and highly corrupt politician with construction promoter.
up to 60~120 office blocks build over motorway interchange that would build true Brussels !

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For this the entire district North in Brussels was demolish for building that never came,
so what happen ?
The first years of project face bankrupt of building contractors do lack of Money by City and Government...
Then happen the 1973 oil crisis and following economic crisis in Belgium.
Next to that were old plans obsolete to new situation and mid 1970s all work on Plan Manhattan stop.
Leaving wasteland for decades, were once 10000 people lived.
End 1990s start redevelopment of the area as smaller office district

This let to therm Brusselisation or how to destroy a city with construction promoter and architects.
If someone from Brussels calls you a Architect they mean it as insult...

In french
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYVqdxzp0QY


Source:
 

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63gehark_ said:
has anyone got anything on the the unbuilt germania?
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Just up from Dami Lee. Nominally it's on the architecture of the Harkonnens in Dune, but the designer took cues from Albert Speer's plans for Germania... and septic tanks. It's pretty well illustrated, including clips from The Man in the High Castle. A good wide-ranging discussion actually, taking aspects of the physics of the Dune universe, colour psychology etc.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3lkZ-7pRAM&t=19s


(Lest anyone think I like this stuff too much, the architect I'd really like to design a house for me would be Charles Rennie Mackintosh.)
 
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Graham1973 said:
A slightly bonkers proposal for the Battersea area of London...
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Bizarre, I used to travel past Battersea Power Station into Victoria several times a year around then, and that last little segment was about the slowest part of the journey, you'd frequently be sat for several minutes on the Battersea side of the bridge waiting for clearance to enter Victoria. Adding an extra 15 movements an hour (7.5 either way) wouldn't help.
 
With ironic timing a friend has just posted that they're stuck in a dystopian nightmare in Battersea Power Station
 
Speaking of Asimov, wasn't Trantor (the capital world) in the Foundation series completely covered by constructions - the only "green" area was around the place. It was described as totally covered in metal.
 
In 1890, a London rival to the Eiffel Tower was suggested and a competition attracted a number of entries. Here's the catalogue and a few of the designs.

publicdomainreview.org

Catalogue of the 68 Competitive Designs for the Great Tower for London (1890)

A catalogue showing the entries for a competition to design a new tower for London. The year previous, 1889, saw the hugely successful Eiffel Tower go up in the centre of Paris, and the good people of London, not to be outdone, decided to get one of their own.
publicdomainreview.org publicdomainreview.org
 

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Can anyone else remember an article from the late 60s in a British Colour supplement magazine (Sunday Times or Observer?) about a scheme to move Whitehall and or Parliament to Windsor. The model shown was the usual 60s concrete a bit like the University of East Anglia.
 
I'd posted a video about this unbuilt railway line back in Post #85 but this urban exploration video in which someone climbs up onto the unfinished bridge is worth looking at. If the comments to the video are to be believed the various governments since the cancellation have taken steps to protect the unbuilt line from development.

View: https://youtu.be/9wQ74Tl-fFU?si=Iq7iDVukv04cAlVe
 
Some unbuilt projects from New York and London

www.sealionpress.co.uk

Unbuilt New York- Part 1

By Nick OttensThis article was first published over here by our friends at Never Was Magazine and is shared as part of our partnership with Never Was. For more articles like this please check out their site.This was originally put up on Never Was as a single article but has been split into two...
www.sealionpress.co.uk www.sealionpress.co.uk

www.sealionpress.co.uk

Unbuilt New York- Part 2

By Nick OttensThis article was first published over here by our friends at Never Was Magazine and is shared as part of our partnership with Never Was. For more articles like this please check out their site.This was originally put up on Never Was as a single article but has been split into two...
www.sealionpress.co.uk www.sealionpress.co.uk

www.messynessychic.com

And what if they'd built New York like this?

You might have noticed that for the cover of our second book, Don't be a Tourist in New York, I chose to feature uptown's Little Red Lighthouse. It's the only one left on the island of Manhattan, but serves as a reminder that New York was first a port before anything else. “A city of hurried and spa
www.messynessychic.com www.messynessychic.com

www.sealionpress.co.uk

Unbuilt London

By Nick OttensThis article was first published over here by our friends at Never Was Magazine and is shared as part of our partnership with Never Was. For more articles like this please check out their site.From a Ponte Vecchio-style bridge across the Thames to a monorail running through Regent...
www.sealionpress.co.uk www.sealionpress.co.uk
 

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