Visionary Architecture

Visionary architecture is the name given to architecture which exists only on paper or which has visionary qualities. While the term ‘visionary’ suggests the idea of an idealistic, impractical or Utopian notion, it also depicts a mental picture produced by the imagination. These architectural drawings on paper allow insight of the unusual perception of the worlds that are impossible to visit everyday, except through the visual dramatization of the designed, imaginative environment. There are also two meanings that are derived from both terms ‘imagination’ and ‘imaginary,’ meaning unrealistic and impossible, and the other the ability to deal creatively with an unseen reality. A significant precedent that adheres to the concept of visionary architecture is the 18th century architect Giovanni Piranesi, who also had to think twice about the difference in meaning of the two terms. The titles of his well-known prison etching works had two versions. The first was ‘imaginary prisons,’ and the final as ‘prisons of the imagination.’