A closer look into "Vestibule+", a Folly 2014 Notable Entry

Woojae Sung and Kyuseon Hong turns the vanishing point into a tangible idea in their proposal, "Vestibule+", which won a Notable Entry title in the popular Folly 2014 competition. Playing with the concept of the traditional architectural folly, the competition invited young architects and designers worldwide to create an original folly installation to be temporarily built at the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York.

Check out the details behind "Vestibule+" below.

Project description:

Vestibule + 
"A vestibule is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building."  

"Looking at the gate on Broadway a few blocks away from it, we already knew the park was there. Seeing through the gate over the park at the end of the road, we felt the park had come to us too fast and naked. The thin gate was standing still there whispering very low that we were about to cross the intangible boundary. We trespassed. Everything happened so fast and painless. Thinking about Folly, we imagined a never realized vestibule that should have captured the grand moment of entering into the park."

"SITE: SOCRATES PARK: The site sits right behind the gate at the intersection of the extension of Broadway and pedestrian path within the park. Broadway, the visual corridor, guides people towards to the park’s gate even from a distance. The gate converts visual stimulus into physical experiences. This change of phase happens sudden even though the existence of huge gate which is clearly visible couple of blocks away."

"GATEWAY TOWARD SOCRATES PARK: When you visit the park, you can first confront with the Gateway with billboard on top. Since 1999, this 10Õ by 28Õ sized billboard has changed its face once or twice a year showcasing what’s happening inside the park. Comparing to its simple gesture toward the city, this had been performed very important role regarding to activation of the park   and its events inside.  Not only because the proposed site is located right next to this gateway, but also due to its importance in the park, we want to focus on this component for this competition.

How can we celebrate this honest, straightforward entry process to make the Socrates park a more special place to visit for everybody?"

"Vestibule toward Socrates Park: Socrates park is a not only publicly, but also spatially open space in the city. For this reason, like most of other parks, it doesn’t clearly define the entry sequence as an unique architectural component. It rather symbolizes the gate as a simple gesture which reminds us the essence of post & lintel system."

"This proposal is trying to tackle this aspect of the site. Comparing to the displayed sculptures & events, the frontality of the park is not strong enough to stimulate the things happening inside. Therefore, we propose vortex like entry feature which can fascinate the people passing by and absorb them into the park as active agents. And we want to   call this as a Vestibule+"

"PROCESS: The gate projects to the site and reshapes the site. A vestibule floating somewhere in between the two captures head space for a person entering in and out of the park. The initial projection is pinched in toward to the vestibule, then again modified to accommodate pedestrian path to the park. Series of ribbon spanning between the frames of the gate, site and vestibule visualize the projection."

"BUDGET: The project consists of three major parts; galvanized steel pipes, tension cables, and polyethylene tapes. Steel frame at both ends are secured back to the gate and ground. Tension cables hold the vestibule frame up in the air. And densely spaced polyethylene tapes span in between frames. Because the dimension of each corresponding edges of   the frame differs from each other, it naturally creates wrinkle and twist visualizing the effect of convergence. Tape can be either one with different colors on both side or one with demarcation pattern.

VESTIBULE + VIEW POINT: You can just pass by or you can step inside. This is an intermediate space between the park and the city. Are you in the Socrates Park already?"

Images courtesy of project authors.

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