Follie? Madness? Brilliance? Architectural Insanity?

What is a follie? Why is it relevant to architecture? How is it appropriate for the HSW?


Ok lets try wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folly


In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs. In the original use of the word, these buildings had no other use, but from the 19th to 20th centuries the term was also applied to highly decorative buildings which had secondary practical functions such as housing, sheltering or business use.^{[dubious – discuss]}


General properties
The concept of the folly is somewhat ambiguous, but they generally have the following properties:

• They are buildings, or parts of buildings. Thus they are distinguished from other garden ornaments such as sculpture.
• They have no purpose other than as an ornament. Often they have some of the appearance of a building constructed for a particular purpose, but this appearance is a sham.
• They are purpose-built. Follies are deliberately built as ornaments.
• They are often eccentric in design or construction. This is not strictly necessary; however, it is common for these structures to call attention to themselves through unusual details or form.
• There is often an element of fakery in their construction. The canonical example of this is the sham ruin: a folly which pretends to be the remains of an old building but which was in fact constructed in that state.

Now from google:

In architecture, an eccentric, generally nonfunctional (and often deliberately unfinished) structure erected to enhance a romantic landscape. Follies were particularly in vogue in England in the 18th and early 19th century. They might resemble medieval towers, ruined castles overgrown with vines, or crumbling Classical temples complete with fallen, eroded columns. In the U.S., the term has been applied to ornate gazebos. It may also be applied to any unusual building that is extravagant or whimsical in style.

For more information on folly, visit Britannica.com.




Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/folly#ixzz1GMPl69c5 

Lincoln Road in South Beach is, without question, a Miami Beach Landmark.  Interestingly enough, it’s a pedestrian mall with a series of architectural follies that have become sculptural objects in the landscape.  Adam Mizrahi from www.UrbanCityArch.com does it again with these unbelivable captures and he also educates us about them with the following description:

Around 1960, Miami Beach architect Morris Lapidus, whose credits include Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau and Eden Roc Hotels, was commissioned to redesign Lincoln Road. Lapidus’s design for Lincoln Road, complete with gardens, fountains, shelters, architectural follies, shade structures (each shade structures exploits one 20th century technology in concrete construction – folded plates, cantilevers, floating slabs, etc.) and an amphitheater reflected the Miami Modern Architecture, or “MiMo,” style that Lapidus pioneered in the 1950s. The Road was closed to traffic and became one of the nation’s first pedestrian malls.

http://www.miamism.com/miamism-fridays-11-2/

The students’ iconic ‘folly’ buildings are intended as small retailing outlets on the water’s edge, adding character and vitality to the NewQuay promenade.


The studio aimed to investigate the relationship between art and architecture through the design of the follies.




Mr Fender said the winning design was chosen because it fulfilled the brief in an imaginative way. “The two pieces are like crafted jewels with very highly worked facades that provide an interesting internal environment,” Mr Fender said.


“They are made of a myriad of different types of materials to create optical effects through refractive and reflective illusions.


“At night they can be very interesting, glowing on the edge of the promenade as foci, and in the day their shapes are very pleasing and provide an interesting ambience.”

http://www.architecture.rmit.edu.au/Projects/Docklands_Follies_Built_Projects.php

http://www.assda.asn.au/technical-info/applications/architectural-building-products/122-mirror-mirror-on-the-water--stainless-steel-fish-bar