April 2, 2013, 12:51 pm
With all the sparkle that keeps popping up throughout the design world these days, we’re not surprised to find a chandelier hanging as the centerpiece of “tree wood,” the winning entry for Socrates Sculpture Park’s second annual folly competition.
Toshihiro Oki, an architect who worked under Pritzker Prize winners SANAA before launching his eponymous New York firm in 2009, won over this year’s jury with his treehouse-like outdoor sculpture. This particular folly (an architectural oddity characterized by strong sculptural qualities over any apparent usefulness) is simple in its box-like geometry, but its open walls let in the dense surrounding foliage. Next to the ornate chandelier, the integration of the outside in takes on a “Midsummer Night’s Dream” air — a touch of opulence in in the middle of a woodland setting, which juror Billie Tsien even described as “magical in its creation of a mood and a place.”
Oki’s tree wood opens to the public Sunday, May 12th.
— Janelle Zara
Tags: Janelle Zara, News, Socrates Sculpture Park, Toshihiro Oki
