Folly Hermitage

2014

Entry for the Folly design competition issued by Stichting Landgoed Fraeylemaborg, Slochteren (NL).

A folly is by definition a structure without a defined function, but in this particular case, this function is still desirable in the form of exhibition space. Folly The Hermitage, therefore, has a double meaning: Hermitage means a home of a hermit or hermit, but also immediately evokes associations with the museum in Saint Petersburg.

We have tried to express this double meaning in the design and materialization of the hermitage folly.
On the one hand very closed and mysterious as a modern variant of a hermit’s house. But on the other hand, it is very open and accessible as a museum.

The folly consists of three volumes which are placed at different angles to each other. They stand on legs, are completely closed and form a sharp contrast with the garden of the deposit. The shape is chosen so that it is not immediately recognizable as a building, the legs evoke associations with furniture.
The three volumes seem to seek support together, they flow into each other but seem frozen in their movement. One of the volumes just lifts his feet and seems to float above the ground level.

By entering the folly you literally enter another world, that of the hermitage as an art safe, as a museum. The sloping walls and floors form a world of their own in which all attention is paid to the exhibited works. The roof lights that ensure sufficient light during the day are the only relationship with the outside world. The inward-looking form of the folly opens up precisely because the 3 volumes are inside.

In the garden of the deposit was probably a hermitage in the period around 1843, although the evidence for this has not yet been found. Through this folly, the hermitage is back in the English landscape garden of the Fraeylemaborg!