An unfinished building is a building (or other architectural structure, as a bridge, a road or a tower) where construction work was abandoned or on-hold at some stage or only exists as a design. It may also refer to buildings that are currently being built, particularly those that have been delayed or at which construction work progresses extremely slowly.
Many construction or engineering projects have remained unfinished at various stages of development. The work may be finished as a blueprint or whiteprint and never be realised, or be abandoned during construction.
One of the best-known perennially incomplete buildings is Antoni Gaudí's basilica Sagrada Família in Barcelona. [1] It has been under construction since 1882 and planned to be complete by 2026, Gaudí's death centenary. [2]
There are numerous unfinished buildings that remain partially constructed in countries around the world, some of which can be used in their incomplete state but with others remaining as a mere shell. Some projects are intentionally left with an unfinished appearance, particularly the follies of the late 16th to 18th century.
Some buildings are in a cycle of near-perpetual construction, with work lasting for decades or even centuries. Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain, has been under construction for around 140 years, having started in the 1880s. Work was delayed by the Spanish Civil War, during which the original models and parts of the building itself were destroyed. Today, even with portions of the basilica incomplete, it is still the most popular tourist destination in Barcelona with 1.5 million visitors every year. Gaudí spent 40 years of his life overseeing the project and is buried in the crypt. [3] Germany's Cologne Cathedral took even longer to complete; construction started in 1248 and finished in 1880, a total of 632 years. [4]
Buildings that were never completed and remain in that state include:
In other cases, construction works proceeds extremely slowly, so one can also say form incomplete structures. Examples are:
There are also roads, railway lines and channels which remained unfinished.
Many projects do not get to the construction phase, halted during or after planning. Ludwig II of Bavaria commissioned several designs for Castle Falkenstein, with the fourth plan being vastly different from that of the first. The first two designs were turned down, one because of costs and one because the design displeased Ludwig, and the third designer withdrew from the project. The fourth and final plan was completed and some infrastructure was prepared for the site but Ludwig died before construction work began. [5] The Palace of Whitehall, at the time the largest palace in Europe, was mostly destroyed by a fire in 1698. Sir Christopher Wren, most famous for his role in rebuilding several churches after the Great Fire of London in 1666, sketched a proposed replacement for part of the palace but financial constraints prevented construction.
Even without being constructed, many architectural designs and ideas have had a lasting influence. The Russian constructivism movement started in 1914 and was taught in the Bauhaus and other architecture schools, leading to numerous architects integrating it into their style.
Computer technology has allowed for 3D representations of projects to be shown before they are built. In some cases the construction is never started and the computer model is the nearest that anyone will ever get to seeing the finished piece. For example, in 1999 Kent Larson's exhibition "Unbuilt Ruins: Digital Interpretations of Eight Projects by Louis I. Kahn" showed computer images of designs completed by noted architect Louis Kahn but never built. [8] Computer simulations can also be used to create prototypes of projects and test them before they are actually built; this has allowed the design process to be more successful and efficient.
Park Güell is a privatized park system composed of gardens and architectural elements located on Turó del Carmel, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Turó del Carmel belongs to the mountain range of Collserola – the Parc del Carmel is located on the northern face. Park Güell is located in La Salut, a neighborhood in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. With urbanization in mind, Eusebi Güell assigned the design of the park to Antoni Gaudí, a renowned architect and the face of Catalan modernism.
The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, otherwise known as Sagrada Família, is a church under construction in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), in 2005 his work on Sagrada Família was added to an existing (1984) UNESCO World Heritage Site, "Works of Antoni Gaudí". On 7 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church and proclaimed it a minor basilica.
This is a timeline of architecture, indexing the individual year in architecture pages. Notable events in architecture and related disciplines including structural engineering, landscape architecture, and city planning. One significant architectural achievement is listed for each year.
The year 1926 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
The Torre Glòries, formerly known as Torre Agbar, is a 38-story skyscraper located between Avinguda Diagonal and Carrer Badajoz, near Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, which marks the gateway to the new technological district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel in association with the Spanish firm b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos and built by Dragados. The Torre Glòries is located in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona and it was originally named after its owners, the Agbar Group, a holding company whose interests include the Barcelona water company Aigües de Barcelona.
Etsuro Sotoo is a Japanese sculptor strongly influenced by Antoni Gaudí. His interest in Gaudí led him to convert to the Catholic Church. His most noted work are sculptures located in the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
The Church of Colònia Güell is an unfinished work by Antoni Gaudí. It was built as a place of worship for the people on a hillside in a manufacturing area in Santa Coloma de Cervelló, near Barcelona. Colònia Güell was the brainchild of Count Eusebi de Güell; who enlisted the help of architect Antoni Gaudí in 1898. However, work was not started until 1908, 10 years after commission. The plan for the building consisted of constructing two naves, an upper and a lower, two towers, and one forty-meter-high central dome. In 1914, the Güell family halted construction due to the death of Count Güell. At the time, the lower nave was almost complete so between the years of 1915 and 1917, it was completed and readied for use.
Lemóniz Nuclear Power Plant is an unfinished nuclear power plant in Lemoiz, in the Basque province of Bizkaia, Spain. Its construction stopped in 1983 when the Spanish nuclear power expansion program was cancelled following a change of government. Its two PWRs, each of 900 MWe, were almost complete but were never operated.
Joan Martorell i Montells was a Catalan architect and designer. He was an uncle of the architect Bernardí Martorell i Puig.
Spain has five active nuclear power plants with seven reactors producing 20% of the country's electricity as of 2023.
Jaume Busquets i Mollera was a Spanish sculptor and painter of the noucentisme generation from Catalonia.
The Casa Botines is a modernista building in León, Spain designed by Antoni Gaudí. It currently houses a museum dedicated to Gaudi, Spanish art of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the history of the building itself.
Antonio Gaudí (アントニー・ガウディー) is a 1984 Japanese documentary film by Hiroshi Teshigahara about the works of Antoni Gaudí. In the film the director visits the buildings including houses in Barcelona and the Sagrada Família.
Catalunya en Miniatura is miniature park inaugurated in 1983 in Torrelles de Llobregat, 17 km (11 mi) from Barcelona. The park is 60,000 m2 (650,000 sq ft), 35,000 m2 (380,000 sq ft) of them devoted to the scale models, it is one of the largest miniature parks in the world, and the largest of the 14 miniature building exhibitions present in Europe. It displays 147 models of palaces, churches, bridges and other buildings from Catalonia and Mallorca and it includes all the major works by the renowned architect Antoni Gaudí.
Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Catalan architect and designer from Spain, known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works have a highly individualized, sui generis style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the church of the Sagrada Família.
The Gaudí House Museum, located within the Park Güell in Barcelona, is a historic home museum that houses a collection of furniture and objects designed by the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. It was the residence of Antoni Gaudí for almost 20 years, from 1906 till the end of 1925. On 28 September 1963 it opened as a historic home museum.
The Confidant from Casa Batlló, also known as the Double Sofa or Banc de dues places , is a furniture piece designed by Antoni Gaudí. Originally designed for the dining room of Casa Batlló on Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia, the chair is currently exhibited in the Modern Art collection of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and at Gaudí House Museum in Barcelona. Replicas are displayed at the Gaudí-designed Casa Batlló and Casa Milà.
The Sagrada Família Schools building was constructed in 1909 by the modern Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí near the site of the Basílica de la Sagrada Família. It was a small school building for the children of the workers building the Sagrada Família, although other children of the neighborhood attended, especially from the underprivileged classes. The teaching was in the charge of Magin Espina Pujol, math teacher and friend of Gaudí, whose photo teaching classes are in the current school.
The Roman Catholic Cathedral of Tangier, whose full name is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit, also known as the Spanish Cathedral, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tangier, Morocco.