Designed to evoke emotion, reflection or delight, a folly is a construction that occupies an area between sculpture and shelter, offering a pause within the panorama the place type takes priority over operate.
Environmental, cultural and social points prevail on this yr’s choice of finalists, with sustainability and recycling a vital consideration in each materials choice and end-of-life deconstruction.
Equilibrium takes its type from the language of scars: each geological and human made. Drawing inspiration from the deep cuts left by industrial extraction and the pure scars sustained by means of erosion and earthquakes throughout Aotearoa’s landscapes, the monolithic construction is each a bodily and a symbolic incision within the terrain. The scar reveals itself as a slender synthetic canyon for guests to stroll by means of: the spatial compression evoking the sensation of being inside a mined trench, street channel or fault line, drawing consideration to the best way we exploit and, finally, go away marks upon the land. Largely constructed from reused timber pallets, the folly’s round design rules would see the timber pallets and packers simply dismantled and recycled into mulch for landscaping or composting, to biodegrade naturally.
Hannah Brodie (KebbellDaish Architects) and Harry Davis (Structure HDT).
A playful interpretation of kaitiakitanga, the Māori idea of guardianship and mutual care between people and the pure world, the design of Te Kaitiaki contains three kaitiaki or caretakers: pīwakawaka, tuatara and tuna. Every of them watches over a definite ecological realm: the primary, sky; the second, land; and, the third, water. The three elevations realise the varieties and views of the guardians, every one discrete however balanced throughout the construction itself. Because the whakataukī says: “Toitū te marae a Tāne, toitū te marae a Tangaroa, toitū te iwi”: if the land is nicely and the ocean is nicely, the folks will thrive. The views of the caretakers remind us that every one life exists not inside a hierarchy, however inside steadiness. As guests transfer across the folly, every guardian is revealed in flip: typically hidden, typically clear, reminding us that perspective shapes understanding, echoing the layered, shifting relationships inside whakapapa.
Impressed by Aotearoa’s vivid landscapes, Framing Tāwharanui is a 7.5-metre-tall viewing gadget, designed to ask pause, contemplation and creativeness. Its design attracts from the standard Māori pā gateway, the place a narrowing entry marks a transparent level of entry to the fortified settlement. A onemetre- vast path threads by means of eight recycled native hardwood portals, which choreograph motion and sight strains, whereas, overhead, a corrugated-iron arch varieties the cover, referencing the agricultural setting and contrasting with the delicate, tactile rope. The trail results in a cantilevered finish level the place the enclosure dissolves, opening completely to the panorama and an uninterrupted view of Brick Bay.
Throughout the wings of the kāruhiruhi is impressed by its namesake, the pied shag, and designed to replicate the transient nature of each a folly and the ever-changing panorama inside which it sits. It begins in autumn, its pores and skin shaped from preserved fallen leaves woven into coir netting, rustling with the wind and weathering with time. Because the leaves dry, curl and ultimately fall away, the folly adjustments with them, revealing a fossillike, timber construction — a quiet acknowledgment of impermanence. Inside, dappled gentle filters by means of the degrading shell, casting ever-changing patterns on the bottom — a gradual efficiency of time’s passage. The folly turns into not solely an area to inhabit however a theatre for observing the world, and life, transfer by.
Constructed with recycled fence battens, phone poles and corrugated iron, Te Pō, Wherō and The World of Gentle is sparked by the transcendental expertise of witnessing Matariki. It’s an intricate narrative themed across the Māori creation fantasy, weaving collectively three distinctive, multifaceted architectural entities, represented by a korowai (cloak), mauri (life pressure) and wairua (soul). With its secrets and techniques hid, Te Pō beckons the witness ahead, the place Wherō seems, a life pressure guiding the witness beneath the edge and, as soon as inside, the witness appears to be like as much as the heavens and is bathed in The World of Gentle.
“Earlier years’ follies have set a excessive bar for entrants and it’s a deal with to see the numerous methods through which this yr’s finalists have accepted the problem of proposing designs that create that particular mixture of a way of place, aesthetic provocation and spatial organisation that’s the essence of the Brick Bay undertaking,” says Folly choose Pip Cheshire.
The profitable folly shall be chosen later this yr and formally opened at Brick Bay in Could 2026. This yr’s judges are Pip Cheshire from Cheshire Architects, Steve Cassidy from Cassidy Building, Peter McPherson from Unitec, Karmen Hoare from Resene, Gabriela Tufare from Construction Design, Chris Barton from Structure NZ, Richard and Anna Didsbury from Brick Bay, and Oliver Prisk from final yr’s profitable folly crew, who created Yellow Submit.
Brick Bay Folly is sponsored by Resene, Cassidy Building, Cheshire Architects, Construction Design, Unitec, Brick Bay, Sam Hartnett Pictures and Structure NZ/ArchitectureNow.
