This is an object submitted for Folly Art Norg 2020. It was selected for construction out of 104 other designs, and will be built in the rural landscape around Norg in the summer of 2021 (postponed due to COVID-19).
The design plays into the dual nature of the Dutch landscape, on one hand dense and utilitarian, on the other hand artificially kept primitive and scenic. It invites visitors to an experience of compression, similar to the ‘act and be watched’-reality of the rural environment.
Simultaneously it takes the provided definition of a folly, an object with intentionally no practical function, and flips it around: while designing we explored the various uses a folly could have and related it to the unlikely uses of everyday objects in an urban context. Like a bridge balustrade, the folly is a seating arrangement; like a gate, the folly is a spatial transition; like a fence, the folly is a screen between spaces; like a radio tower, the folly is a beacon and orientation point. All of these uses could be integrated in a simple repeating structure of equisized wooden beams, distorted horizontally and vertically.
Projectteam:
- Justin Agyin
- Lennart Arpots
- Yang Bai
- Thom Cornelissen
