What is an architectural folly? According to Webster’s dictionary, a “folly” in architecture is described as “a building constructed primarily for decoration but suggesting, through appearance, some other purpose or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of garden ornaments.” Its roots stem from both French and English landscape traditions. They are the subject of regular inquiry in the fields of design and architectural education. The objective was to create an installation from reclaimed pieces of wood. The concept was trying to find the wood piece’s attributes and exploring thought provoking ways to represent them. The wooden strips serve as a wall system that wraps around a container, which functions as the landscape. The objective in the creation process was to make the ordinary into the extraordinary. The next step was to create a new vertical wall system by incorporating a new element to the design. The frames were replaced with slanted and curved framing systems that the wood pieces would be attached to. This created a curvilinear continuous striped wall structure. The concave and convex zones constructed created areas for different activities. The concave openings were integrated into a benching system while for the convex zones, the height was increased to create pockets of standing spaces.

​

The site had varying sizes of trees and that were randomly located. One of the first exercises was to create a boundary outlining the division of the ground and its intersection with the trees. The supports 2” x4” studs were put together in a triangular module. Each of the framing was custom in size. 1” x 4” wood pieces were used for the curvilinear horizontal strips. In order to give more flexibility and play into the strips, each of them had to be sliced into two pieces. Essentially, they were 1/2” x 4”. This made it easier to nail and make overlaps, as well. The installation is thirteen foot tall at the high point and six foot tall at the low point.