‘Unbuilt’ by Miruna Ilas

‘Unbuilt’ by Miruna Ilas is a student architecture project for a Museum of Unbuilt Architecture. It uses Queen’s House by Inigo Jones to explore preservation, impermanence and unrealised design.

The project is interesting because it treats preservation as active interference. A building may look stable, but every restoration, addition or rejected proposal changes how it is understood.

Project idea

The Museum of Unbuilt Architecture celebrates the versions of architecture that normally disappear: lost relics, proposed interventions, unrealised schemes and designs that never became fixed fabric.

By focusing on Queen’s House, the project gives that idea a clear anchor. The building becomes a place where past, possible and imagined versions can be experienced together.

Why unbuilt architecture matters

• Unbuilt work shows the choices that did not become visible in the city.
• Preservation is not neutral, because every intervention changes what survives.
• Speculative museum design can make architectural history easier to question.
• Large-scale projections give visitors a way to interact with alternative versions of a building.

Portfolio lesson from Unbuilt

A project like this depends on concept clarity. The reader needs to understand the premise before they can judge the drawings, atmosphere or museum experience.

That is a useful lesson for any student portfolio. If the project is about memory, preservation or speculation, make the idea plain, then show how the building experience proves it.

Next step

See more student and graduate work in the Architecture Social Projects directory, or send in your own project for the showcase.