The 2024 issue of idea journal

In both the research and practice of spatial design, unbuilt projects are often occluded by those that eventuate in built form. Unable to deliver genuine qualities of spatial experience, the intangibility of unbuilt interiors can be relegated to the status of ‘never was’, ‘never made it’, ideas on backup hard-drives, in discarded plan drawers, and ageing materials studies. 

Yet, unbuilt projects frequently foreground the ideological, cultural, and political motivations that undergird their conception. Unencumbered by municipal regulations, costs, and compromises, unbuilt interiors maintain the presence of the breathtaking idea that is too often redacted, conceded, or simply forgotten by the time a design physically manifests in reality.  

From the interior worlds of Étienne-Louis Boullée’s Cenotaph for Isaac Newton (1784) to Superstudio’s critique of hyper-modern domesticity in Supersurface, The Happy Island, Project (1971), unbuilt interiors have the capacity to challenge existing power and political constructs by uniquely contributing unassailed opinions. Instruments of persuasion, unbuilt interiors expand discourse on the social impacts of spatial design in ways their built compeers cannot.  

Adversely, the persuasive power of unbuilt projects can also be used to diminish critiques of the status quo. Hyper-realistic renders and the emergence of strong AI imagery are primed to chaperone our desires for wonderment into the consumption of unbuildable imagery of interior luxury and grandeur. In our current fixation on housing and lifestyle, global inflation and supply chain disruptions continue to entrench concerns about the unbuildable within aspirations of home ownership and status, impacting the values and structures of domestic occupation for those who can afford it and those who cannot.  

The 2024 issue of idea journal seeks contributions that explore the history, theory, practice, and futures of unbuilt interiors. In expanded discourses on the social impacts of spatial design, what role do archived, artificial, and unachievable designs have on the ideological, cultural, and political contexts of their times? 

From infamous speculative designs to competition entries too radical to build or promising projects that fell victim to unforeseen circumstances, this issue seeks text-based research essays that examine archived, postponed, abandoned, and unreal projects, and analyse their impact on new knowledge and new audiences in interior and spatial design.

This issue also seeks image-based research essays that respond to, comment on, and reflect ideas of the unbuilt in spatial practices. Using the space of the page as the site for creative exploration, image-based research essays should be conceived as original works that respond to the themes of this issue and not as visual documentation of projects produced elsewhere.

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI) — DUE 9 February 2024 

Authors are invited to register their interest with an EOI submitted via the idea journal submission portal by 9 February 2024.

Please use the following file name for EOIs: idea journal 2024 EOI_FAMILY NAME

An EOI is a one-page PDF document that includes the author(s) name, affiliation, email address, working title, the form the contribution will take (text-based or image-based research essay), one key image, five keywords, and a brief 300-word abstract outlining the specific topic that will be examined or explored in the full manuscript.

The EOI is reviewed by the editorial team only; it is not refereed. The EOI signals the author’s intent to submit a full manuscript (text-based or image-based research essay), which is double-blind peer reviewed. The EOI provides the editorial team with the topics being addressed and the scope of the review process. Authors’ contributions are only accepted or declined for the publication after the peer-review process.

Full details for the CFP and guidelines for submitting an EOI can be found HERE.