Client: Private Collectors

Overview

Commissioned by private collectors in New York's Hudson Valley, in collaboration with landscape architects Field Operations. “Folly” forms a locus for an evolving trail network and landscape design on 250 acres of mixed meadow, woodlands, ridge and ponds.

Goals

Set in a natural clearing, "Folly" was sited in relation to existing house and axes of former farm roads and paths. Drawing on the playfulness and the ornamental nature of its 18th century precedents, “Folly” appears like a product of nature, at times solid and then transparent to the views of the forest around it, like a gathering of sea-foam or the fringe of a forest mushroom.

Process

Hand in hand with client and landscape architect over several months of site visits and meetings, we worked through a solution that is sensitive to the history of the former farm landscape and existing house. The location of "Folly" reorients the property, both visible from the residence and an invitation for exploration.