folly

folly. Eye-catcher, usually a building in a contrived landscape, often otherwise useless. It might be in the form of a sham ruin, a Classical temple, oriental tent, Chinoiserie pagoda, or other charming fabrique set in a Picturesque garden. It can also provide seats and shelter from which an agreeable view can be enjoyed, but more often it simply demands attention and gives pleasure by its eccentricity. One of the oddest follies in Britain is the giant pineapple at Dunmore Park, Stirlingshire, Scotland (1761). More recently the term has been given to buildings that are out of the ordinary, do not conform to any of the recognized styles, and are not necessarily placed in a landscape. The delightful King's Coffee House, King Street, Knutsford, Ches. (1907–8), built by Richard Harding Watt to designs by W. Longworth, could be regarded as a folly, as could the complex of open-work turrets of steel covered with broken pottery and glass, seashells, and other detritus by Simon (Sam) Rodia (1879–1965), known as Watts Towers, Los Angeles, CA Other C20 follies include the Bottle Village, Simo, Santa Susana, CA (c.1950–1970s), built by Tressa Prisbrey of bottles set in concrete to house her curious collection scavenged from rubbish-dumps. Esther McCoy wrote lovingly about ‘Grandma's Bottle Village’ in 1974. Mention should also be made of the Palais Ideal, Hauterives, Drôme, France (1879–1905), a fantastic dream-like castle of concrete and stone embellished with much decoration, built to a plan of great complexity by Facteur Ferdinand Cheval (1836–1924), who also designed and built his own mausoleum in Hauterives Cemetery (1913–15). There are other marvellous inventions that show the folly is more than whimsical, but the result of the creative longing of the human spirit, often coming within the category of Fantastic architecture.

Bibliography

A&A, lxviii (July 1951), 23–5;
H&M (1986);
Howley (1993);
Ba. Jones (1974);
M&T (1991);
Mott et al. (1989);
Prisbrey (1967);
Schuyt & and Elffers (1980);
Walker Art Center (1974)