Designed for Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, All That Could Have Been is a temporary installation and exhibition design by CAN in collaboration with Harry Lawson.

Drawing inspiration from Sir John Soane’s eclectic collecting methodology, the project comprises three bespoke cabinets—All That Was, All That Is, and All That Could Have Been—which house a curated mix of natural, man-made, fragmentary, and everyday objects.

The cabinet architectures reflect their conceptual themes: a facade-like structure examining historic preservation, a scaffold-like frame exploring digital replication and continuous flux, and a tomb-like form celebrating unrealized creative ideas.

Together, these micro-collections interrogate object authenticity, architectural heritage, and physical display in the digital age. Contemporary exhibition design, museum installation, and spatial curation by CAN and Harry Lawson.

The project was featured in Wallpaper* and was shortlisted for the Architects Journal Small Projects Award.

Photography by Tim Bowditch