Submit your concept for the 2020 Brick Bay Folly design-build competition

11 May 2020

The Brick Bay Sculpture Trust invites emerging architects to submit concepts for the 2020 Brick Bay Folly – a design-build competition that investigates the intersection between sculpture and architecture with temporary structures that intentionally serve no utilitarian purpose.

Architectural follies are found all over the world, and their purpose is to inspire and delight audiences. But even more importantly, folly projects provide a fantastic opportunity for emerging architects to test their ideas on a real life project, manage construction, solve contingencies and participate in physical construction.

The Brick Bay Folly Project began in 2016 with the first winning structure ‘Belly of the Beast,’ which opened to the public the following March. Each year since, a new and unique folly has been installed. This year’s winning submission will receive a grant and technical assistance to bring their concept to life and, once complete, exposure that might not otherwise have been available to them.

The 2019 winners were four first year Masters students from the University of Auckland’s School of Architecture and Planning with an incredibly bright vision - Leo Zhu, Dorien Viliamu, Daniel Fennell and Wenhan Ji. Their project, titled ‘The Wood Pavilion,’ is comprised of 419 pieces of 90 x 45mm timber stained in Resene Woodsman Bark wood oil stain.

‘The Wood Pavilion’, designed byLeo Zhu, Dorien Viliamu, Daniel Fennell and Wenhan Ji was the 2019 competition winner. It is stained in Resene Woodsman Bark wood oil stain.

Leo Zhu, leader of the team, describes the concept as an exploration into the materiality of timber. He says it was one of the biggest learning curves for the students.

“There were quite a few challenges we didn’t foresee. Designing versus constructing is quite different and this was the team’s first experience at attempting to construct a project of this size. Pretty much every day, we were presented with a new problem to solve so our plans would change daily. We couldn’t have done it without our mentors – Richard Harris, Yusef Patel (Associate Head of Architecture School, Unitec) and design tutors Uwe Rieger and John Chapman from the University of Auckland.”

The 2019 winning team, Leo Zhu, Dorien Viliamu, Daniel Fennell and Wenhan Ji, stand inside their completed folly. The 419 pieces of timber it is constructed with are stained in Resene Woodsman Bark wood oil stain.

Last year was also the first time the Folly team was filmed from the inception of the project to completion and the grand unveiling. You can view the 2019 winning team’s story and find out more here. 

As expected, this prestigious project receives many entries each year. For this year’s competition, the deadline to submit concepts is midnight on 1 June 2020. For full competition details and submission requirements, visit the Brick Bay Sculpture website.

images Samuel Harnett

Published: 11 May 2020