The winning architectural installation in the Brick Bay Folly 2016 competition is being unveiled at the Brick Bay Vineyard on Saturday 12 March 2016 from 3 – 5pm. The winning folly entry is Daughter of the Swamp, designed by: architectural graduates Alexander Sacha Milojevic from Patterson Associates and Raphaela Rose from Jasmax; Ryan David Mahon, who is currently studying for a Master of Architecture (Professional) and Urban Design at The University of Auckland; and Edward Roberts, a geotechnical engineer at Aurecon.

The concept for Daughter of the Swamp is an enormous eel-pot or hīnaki form marooned on the edge of a pond: an elongated form of coloured-steel ribs that wobble in the breeze. “The folly site is on the bank of a gorgeous swamp so we wanted a dynamic construction that rolled over the land,” states co-designer Alexander Sacha Milojevic.

“It’s a mystical serpentine nestled among the trees – moving from head to neck to body to tail – along the curves of the water’s edge.”

“We wanted it to respond to Declan Burn and Matt Ritani’s vertical Belly of the Beast, which has such a strong and evocative narrative and materiality,” explains Milojevic. “We thought about how it might sit within an overall family of follies.” Visitors are invited to journey into its intimate interior, which also acts as a meeting space.

Daughter of the Swamp follows the success of last year’s inaugural winning folly. The aim of the award is to support young and emerging architects, or students in accredited New Zealand architecture programmes, to explore the intersections between architecture and sculpture, and the increasing overlap between the two disciplines.

The jury included Richard Harris from Jasmax, Anna Didsbury and Jonathan Organ from Brick Bay Sculpture Trust, Tony van Raat from Unitec, Joanne Duggan from Resene, Greg Pritchard from Fletcher Construction, Justine Harvey from Architecture New Zealand and Declan Burn, the 2015 co-winner.

The winner receives an overall $30,000 grant towards realising the proposed project, including $15,000 from Resene, $10,000 in building supplies and services from Fletcher Building, and $5,000-worth of advice and fabrication resources from Unitec.

“We were intent to work within the defined budget,” says Milojevic. “And, to achieve that, we knew that we would need to use materials that were readily and cheaply available.”

“We’ve made sacrifices to realise this folly yet we have learnt such a huge amount about project management, including how to gain support from volunteers and tradespeople, and how to find a good deal. We are grateful that our sponsors Fletchers, Resene and Unitec, and many others, went out of their way to support us.”

To create the arches, the team chose steel rebar, normally used for concrete reinforcement, which they discovered had to be cleaned and primed on site immediately before any rust set in, whereby the cleaning process would need to be repeated.

Brick Bay’s Sculpture Trail manager Jonathan Organ adds: “There were so many people who went beyond the call of duty to help achieve the folly. The designers’ employers were very generous in allowing them to take time off work; it would have been very difficult to do without their support but everyone has really believed in the project. In fact, I think that when people see the folly, they will really be blown away. It’s of an international standard.”

Daughter of the Swamp will be exhibited at Brick Bay Vineyard for a period of two years.