The world's first skyscraper was proposed by British architect Charles Burton in 1851. via Gizmag

via Gizmag

In “Design Fictions: From Props to Prototypes” (Build Your Own World: 2010 01SJ Biennial), Julian Bleecker writes:

“Design fiction is a way to speculate seriously. It’s not quite brainstorming, nor is it ideating. It is design that tells stories. It creates material artifacts that force conversations and suspend one’s disbelief in what is possible. It’s a way of imagining a different kind of world by outlining the contours, rendering the artifacts as story props, then using them to imagine. The prototyping activates the idea, giving it a few material features and some density, and forcing the refinement that comes from making something.”

I don’t know how fanciful Burton’s proposal was in 1851, but it was one heck of a story.