Entrance to Monarch Exhibition
Interior concept sketch of the ceiling installation
Side perspective
Joseph Paxton scribbled the design for the Crystal Palace on some blotting paper
Streaked with sunlight and crowded together for warmth in winter, Monarch Butterflies blanket fir trees in El Rosario Sanctuary. - Jaime Rojo
Speculative competition proposal · civic-cultural infrastructure
Hyde Park, London · 2026
Role: Architectural design & research
Status: Selected winning submission / exhibition project
Project Title - Monarch, a 21st Century Crystal Palace -
This speculative proposal was chosen among the winning submissions by the Museum of Architecture (MoA) for exhibition at the Great Exhibition Road Festival 2026.
‘The competition marks 175 years since the Great Exhibition of 1851, one of the defining moments in architectural and cultural history, inviting designers, architects, students and creative thinkers from anywhere in the world to reimagine the building at its centre.’
Positioned in Hyde Park, Monarch takes migration as both its subject matter and its structural logic. Large-scale industrial gantries – referencing the frameworks used to build great ships – support shifting curatorial installations exploring the successive waves of migration that have shaped British identity. Named for the monarch butterfly, the project is provisional, adaptable and polysemous, designed to leave traces rather than fix meanings.