Naomi Darling Architecture

Eddy & Currents 

Proposal for Socrates Sculpture Park - Folly 2013

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Project Team:

Naomi Darling - Principal 

Spencer Hoyt 

 

Follies were an important part of the experience of the picturesque English strolling garden in the 18th century.  They were destinations in the landscape as well as picturesque features to be viewed from multiple vantage points while one strolled through the garden.  Elements of the exotic, such as Chinese Pagodas, also became popular as the English took a fancy to the orient.

  

Eddy and Currents  is an architectural folly that combines elements of the Chinese garden pavilion and garden walls while transforming them to the waterfront site that is Socrates Sculpture Park.  The Chinese garden uses walls to choreograph movement much as the picturesque strolling gardens dictated movement through carefully designed pathways.  Eddy and Currents  highlights both the stroll and the destination while considering the site of Socrates Sculpture Park on the East River.  The water flows in swift currents as people flow through the park.  The Current  walls will be designed specifically with the site chosen taking into consideration views of the river and the park, as well as views of the installation from other locations within the park.  As currents bend and flow with elements in their path, the Current  walls will bend and pivot to optimize views and the experience of the stroll.  The Eddy Pavilion is at the confluence of the two Current walls – a destination, where the waters meet and linger before continuing on their course.