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The latest architectural folly at the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, unveiled this month, represents the imagination of four graduates from the School of Architecture at Victoria University in Wellington.
The imposing Te Reo o te Hau (Voice of the Kōkōhau) was inspired by Mangatāwhiri, the wind that sweeps across the bay at nearby Omaha.
It was built using 989 recycled kwila shingles and dedicated to the power and mystery of the wind.
This year’s judging panel was chaired by architect Pip Cheshire.
“This folly superbly fulfils the challenges laid down by Brick Bay,” he says. “It has a strong idea founded on the cultural history of the site, a complex logistical exercise involving a team strung out over the lower half of the country and a do-or-die goal of harnessing the wind.
“The folly project challenges teams to take their glossy competition renders and work through the big issues of supply, structural integrity and cost control – a process that invariably ends in the minutiae of counting screws and metres of rope before the graft of fabrication and assembly. All of that can amount to little unless the end result stirs our imagination.
“As mentors, we were worried about the detail that would allow the timber ‘feathers’ to move and clatter in the wind. The fact that the team has achieved this and brought the folly to life is a testimony to their creativity, persistence and hard work. It is a fine piece.”
Te Reo o te Hau is the eighth folly winner since the competition started in 2016 and it will be on site at Brick Bay for two years before being dismantled.
It can be viewed as part of the sculpture trail walk, which features more than 60 artworks.
A spokesperson says that the folly provides visitors with the opportunity to stand under the cloak of the folly and, on a windy day, surround themselves with the voice of the wind, “tuning in to the kōrero it has with its surroundings”.
