Mangotsfield Folly

The old Mangotsfield Station site is a micro example of domicological blight, where the use of the structure is now defunct affording its management or removal to the public purse, but it is also a great example of our race’s industrious ability to find creative re-use to maximise the benefit of past actions rather than just deleting them. Responding to this the ‘Folly’ is a case study of reclamation – using construction materials mined from other demolition and refurbishment projects - and its own eventual reuse. It is designed to be fully demountable leaving nothing but a footprint. Its scale affords a simplicity not easily gained on larger projects but which at this measure can be extremely pure. The idea formed around a street architecture akin to Bristol’s famous art scene. Bringing art and activity into the space as it existed, communicating its statement but accepting its own temporality; susceptible to the next creative - or less-creative - mind updating it. Less viable elements were quickly re-purposed and evolved to better suit the space - the stone pediments of our principal structure (inspired by Shinohara’s Takinawa House) quickly proved to be insufficiently strong for the public realm and were ‘critically reviewed’ by local youths … so we rebuilt with a stronger more functional junction detail. Overall, the aesthetic design was motivated by Enzo Mari’s simplicity in construction. We sought a legibility in the proposed structures which would commend the concepts to laypeople furthering their potential reach. Judd and Prouve’s projects also inspired us in their refined detailing and offsite construction, minimising material usage and simplifying connections to simplify the eventual removal process.