<i>Portal:</i> research-creation, speculative architecture and the subterranean imaginary

Research-creation is an approach to research that integrates arts-based practices and methods from project formulation to implementation and dissemination. This paper presents an entry to the 2024 Antepavilion architecture competition for a temporary folly on a site in Inner London, which formed a research-creation element of a wider research project on play and counterplay in contemporary urbanism. The proposal reflects on the playful but essentially disposable nature of the ‘pop-up’ and develops a satirical critique of the construction industry drawing on the work of the Planetary Portals research group, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jacques Herzog and the Arctic scholar Charlotte Wrigley. Extrapolating from the subterranean imaginaries of Jules Verne and the innovative engineering of the Brunels, father and son, the proposal takes the extractivism of contemporary construction to its (il)logical conclusion. This work demonstrates the potential of research-creation in transposing architectural and geographical thinking and generating unexpected insights in both fields.