FOLIE DESIGN

Model Making

 

For years Howard Smith wharves have sat dormant, with barely a trickle of pedestrian traffic in the past and currently none whatsoever. The site is poorly maintained and slowly becoming overgrown. When initiatives are made by council to restore pedestrian flow, there must be opportunities for the public to interrelate with the inert space in order to experience the veiled aesthetics of the site that have for so long have been disregarded.  The proposed folie installation will convey the language of the site, in this case the surrounding aesthetics. Language is an underlying complex inherent in all things of every level of life. Everything proceeds from language.  This folie has been designed to activate the space, but it is very much multifunctional and at the same time non-functional, in the sense that without an inhabitant’s participation, the folie cannot convey its language. This is demonstrated by one of the functions of the folie, where seating is hidden in plain sight within the walls of its façade, and only once an inhabitant activates these triggers do they realise the solace that is provided to them. Wether they use the space to admire the history of the site, its surrounding natural elements or the monumental piece of bridge engineering hanging above them, they can truly read the ethos of the design and the site. The aesthetics of the folie are transcribed very much from their immediate surrounding, wether that be the form that envisions a gnarled growth of barnacles or overgrown vines, or the riveted metal work that takes ideals from the bridges construction and the sites past. The phenomena of design; any object, event, situation or experience that a person can see, hear, touch, smell, taste, feel, intuit, know, understand, or live through- is addressed. Underlying commonalities that mark the essential core of the folies phenomenon surface for both the inhabitant and the observer. The folie is intended to set in motion for the inhabitants a sequencing of thoughts, memories and impressions supported on the language of the structure.

 

As you can see from the images above, since the beginning of  my concept design I had worked with the concept of the inhabitant being rewarded upon interaction with the site. At first it seems as if the discovery of a seat is the reward, however, once the inhabitant discovers the site from the solace of their new seat they realise the true rewards of their efforts.