UNFOLLY
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Project unFolly LOCATION Socrates Sculpture Park Queens, New York City BY Daniel Springer
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UNFOLLY - THEORY „Concrete jungle where dreams are made of...“ Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys „New York“ „Modern life is still rubbish... modern rubbish is still life.“ Heatsick „Re-Engineering“
Follies often conjure nostalgic memories of ancient Greco-Roman temples, or reference historical characteristics of rustic, rural life. The project of a Folly nowadays, therefore, could be a contemporary interpretation of this contextual recollection, instead citing the neighboring urban environment of Queens and greater New York - a form of ‘urban romance’ that reveres the qualities of the modern, rugged city.
The rugged and rough urban landscape is a product of the not-so-distant-past. It is the city of the 20th century which offered us desires between low-tec and high-tec, future ideas and archaic feelings and chicness paired with junkspace. The image by Steven Siegel for example shows this kind of junkspace amid future ambitions - a vast and vacant housing block in New York City in the mid-80‘s and a housing tower in the background as a symbol for progress. This city of the 20th century was mainly shaped by modernist ideas in a time of mass production, urban growth and segregation of social classes. One contribution of the modernist architects hereby was the
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introduction of easy, cheap and standardized building techniques. The standardized framework or the Domino system introduced by Le Corbusier and later on often used for mass-housing, recalls these rational, purist ideals in its architectural simplicity. As a result of the low cost opportunity city councils and investors tended to this kind of method in order to offer a huge amount of modernised flats on a very small surface area in the city. Additional to the building techniques, the separation of basic functions like living, working and leisure activities was another contribution by the modernists in order to shape the contemporary city at that time. This resulted in blocks of mono-functional characteristics. The notorious U.S urban housing project, Pruitt-Igoe, showcases the negative impact of such developments. It illustrates urban failure, decay and architectural destruction. With only a short lifespan of less than 20 years, its infamous collapse was dubbed by Charles Jencks as “the day Modern architecture died�. Therefore it raises the question of the value of a constructed building itself, considering how simple it is to get rid of it.
The contemporary folly as a form of an unused and undetermined structure should also address these kinds of recent developments in my opinion, because there is an awkward romanticism behind it. Vacant and unfinished buildings in inner-cities or rural areas could be characterized as a form of modern gothic. These kinds of feelings are very well transported in music already by producers such as Demdike Stare, The Haxan Cloak or Kangding Ray. But architecture is still looking for a way to express it. Julia Schultz-Dornburg, for example, documents this potential for unfinished architecture in her book Ruinas Modernas. Here she examines the phenomena of incomplete, unused buildings in Spain, abandoned mainly due to economical factors, and discusses the state of transition that such buildings encounter when their programs are left undefined
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and boundless. These half-finished, decaying buildings provoke images of the romantic ruins of the 18th century and ultimately act as the contemporary ruins of the modern age.
But these kinds of seemingly abandoned and unfinished structures are not purposeless. Rather, they have the potential of playful inhabiting due to their ungoverned appearance. Bernard Tschumi already addressed this kind of public reclaiming of uninhabited structures in his follies in Parc de la Villette, Paris. They similarly explore undefined potentials within ambiguous structures. His non-program-specific follies encourage inhabitants to determine their own use for the architecture, and inspire a loose, individual engagement with the follies, as opposed to one that is preordained or resolute.
What I refer to by the term „unFolly“ is to not set up a structure in order to give it life. I rather propose to create a structure in order to demolish it in two steps. Each step is regarded as a public event. First the opening of the folly with a planned and designed partial collapse, followed by the closing event with a total collapse. But why propose a
UNFOLLY - THEORY
building collapse? Because there exists a certain sublime fascination when it comes to building collapses. Although seemingly chaotic and disorderly, the demolition act itself demands a high level of precision in its execution. Maybe it demands even more exact planning than to construct a building. It is an ‘exacted chaos’, where the destruction of the building requires a specific design method in its own right, and is ultimately a crucial design phase in the building’s lifecycle. This consideration contributes to the spectacle of the demolition and allures people to observe its decay. Finally the collapse also excavates the roughness of the structure and refers to the sublime beauty of an abandoned building or ruin.
The project „unFolly“ refers to this lifecycle of a building, but in a reversed way - starting with the death of a building with the collapse, followed by the afterlife, illustrating the decaying beauty of exposed reinforced steel while it simultaneously recalls the rugged urban city, until the end of the structure is showcased through the celebration of the total collapse. During the phase of the afterlife a proposed scaffolding within the collapsed structure invites the public to inhabit and observe it, as well as the surrounding environment due to the elevation of the scaffolding. In terms of budget, basic design principles were adopted in the folly to allow an easy, cost-effective construction while referring to modernist construction techniques. The proposed (un)Folly, so to speak, marks in a way the start of modernism while simultaneously incorporating its end by referring to the demolition of Pruitt Igoe by the building collapse. This folly competition, therefore, at the Socrates Sculpturing Park in Queens provides a highly suitable platform and environment for these kinds of experimental ideas.
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UNFOLLY - PROJECT PROPOSAL
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SHORT PROJECT DESCRIPTION UnFolly is a contemporary exploration of classic 18th and 19th century romantic follies. Referencing the picturesque ruin in the rural landscape, unFolly is the design of an unfinished structure in a sculpture park within a rugged urban environment in Queens, New York City. Traditionally, the folly was created as a nonfunctional building to enhance a natural landscape. The proposed project, therefore, is a modern-day built structure created to enhance the rugged surrounding urban landscape and to stimulate the public in order to appropriate it in various, undefined ways. An underlying theme of ‘lifecycle’ guides this project, whereby four different phases are individually celebrated and actively participated in by the members of the public: „The set-up“, „Collapse“, „Inhabiting“ and the „Total Collapse“.
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PROJECT ITERATION This is the process of the actual folly design proposal. From a column-slap structure to an open column-beam structure.
The starting point was the standardized framework. There is more built material for the collapsing, but it wouldn‘t fit to the budget.
PROJECT ITERATION OF THE STRUCTURE TO COLLAPSE
During the iteration of the project I was inspired by the grid proposal of Tschumi‘s Follies. It is easy to produce in ferroconcrete and cost-effective. And in order to collapse the structure some elements would be demolished in the first phase throug the use of less blasting material.
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Phase 1
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The one year lifecycle of the proposal from setting-up to total collapse. There is no need for recycling afterwards. It is a planned deconstruction of the proposed folly.
Material use
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one 1. Collapse = Opening of Folly
Phase 4 - Total Collapse Event The last event when the folly gets fully deconstructed.
Phase 3 The folly is open f
- Set-up
ONE YEAR LIFECYCLE
e year 2. Collapse = Closing of Folly
Inhabiting for public access.
Phase 2 - Collapse Event It is one single event, which shapes the folly for the inhabiting.
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UNFOLLY - PROJECT PROPOSAL
THE SET-UP The Material is mainly ferrocement consisting of three elements: fundaments, columns and beams.
The beams and the columns are made of ferrocement.
The fundaments are just supporting the columns because, they are mostly supporting them while there isn‘t a slap to support.
The actual set-up of the folly
PHASE ONE | SETTING-UP THE STRUCTURE
2.. Beams 0.25 4 4
4 4 2. Columns
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1. Beams
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1. Columns 3
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Fundaments
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OPENING EVENT: COLLAPSE The collapse signifies the opening event of the folly 2014. People are invited to gather together in order to experience it. Also It indicates an artistic approach to the spectacularization of building collapses. The society of the spectacle and in full effect. The initial death to the structure shapes it for the afterlife.
PHASE TWO | OPENING EVENT COLLAPSE
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DESIGN BY DECONSTRUCTION For the design by executing a building collapse it would be important to consult a professional blaster in order to discuss the impact and also the behavior of ferrocement. Like already mentioned in the introduction it is a highly precise technique in order to get the anticipated result. Therefore it needs professionals and also courage to execute and to gain the perfect results.
Missing parts due to the explosion showing the reinforced steel out of the concrete shell.
Structure in the condition after the detailed planned collapse.
PHASE TWO | COLLAPSE
explosion diagramm of the intended structure after the collapse.
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THE ONE YEAR LONG PHASE OF INHABITING In the post-collapse phase the folly is set to be appropriated. A scaffolding is proposed in order to experience the collapsed structure and using it as an observation tower. Additional to that hanging plants would be another imaginative proposal in order to let nature take over the structure as well.
Detail drawing next page
Detail drawing next page
PHASE THREE | INHABITING THE COLLAPSED STRUCTURE
Structure in the condition after the detailed planned collapse.
Scaffolding within the collapsed structure
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Close-ups of the proposed correlation of collapsed structure and scaffolding.
PHASE THREE | INHABITING THE COLLAPSED STRUCTURE
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Elevation drawings of the proposal.
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Elevation of the Folly with the scaffolding
PHASE THREE | INHABITING THE COLLAPSED STRUCTURE
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8 Topview of the Folly
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Perspective of the rugged structure and the scaffolding in its use.
PHASE FOUR - CLOSING EVENT TOTAL COLLAPSE
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CLOSING EVENT: TOTAL COLLAPSE The event of the total collapse is the deconstruction of the folly. The afterlife of the structure is over and celebrated through the complete domolishing. The remaining elements can be removed or kept like demonstrated on the following image as an urban gothic ruin.
PHASE FOUR - CLOSING EVENT TOTAL COLLAPSE
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FINAL AND TOTAL COLLAPSE After the final collapse there are only the last remaining fragments left. In terms of recycling there is no real need for it. The debris after the collapse needs to be removed. If possible some fragments could be left on site in order to recall the project.
PHASE FOUR | TOTAL COLLAPSE
modern gothic romanticism after the final collapse event.
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Proposal of the unFolly on site.
UNFOLLY - PROJECT PERSPECTIVE ON SITE
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Proposal of the unFolly on site and takeover by the public and the nature.
UNFOLLY - PROJECT PERSPECTIVE ON SITE
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UNFOLLY
2 014 Š Daniel Springer