YELLOW POST: CULTURE, HISTORY AND GATHERING
Photo Sam Hartnett
Perched high on the hillside, Yellow Post marks Brick Bay’s 10th Folly – a fitting tribute for this anniversary with its vivacious colour, towering height, and reference to the act of gathering.
Words Tegan Dunn
The four designers – George Culling, Oliver Prisk, Henry Mabin and Andre Vachias – who have remained close since studying architecture together at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University, won the competition over dozens of other teams. They started with the playful thought: “how cool would it be to build a giant yellow tower at Brick Bay?” But the key inspiration for the design sprouted from learning about traditional hākari structures in university lectures.
Hākari were enormous scaffold stages, once constructed by iwi in the Northland settlement of Kororāreka (now Russell). Utilising resources of native hardwoods, these enormous towers were used by iwi as markers for congregation, celebration and ceremony, such as weddings, tangi, the naming of children and the resolution of conflict.
Keen to reference these temporary structures, the team worked with local iwi Ngāti Manuhiri to finesse their concept. With a carefully planned design and build process, the folly utilised screw pile foundations, customised scaffolding and over 60 litres of paint. The team reflects fondly on their time building at Brick Bay – camping at the woolshed, waking to sheep outside their tents each morning and working ‘extended tradie hours’ to meet the completion deadline.
Yellow Post stretches 11 metres skywards on the sloped site; a matrix of yellow beams forming a union of 108 intersecting nodes. The fabric sheets create a clever maze of mass, light and shadow, and are a reference to the terraced stages from traditional hākari that were used to store kai for gatherings.
Painted in a celebratory yellow hue (Resene ‘Bloom’), the Folly has taken on a life of its own as a prominent beacon – signalling the arrival and departure of visitors to Brick Bay, and becoming a place of congregation. With glimpses of the tower from all over the property, it has a strong sense of identity, making its place known and felt within the landscape. The team describe the Folly as having a ‘structural wonderness’, remarking “no matter where you are, you will see it, and it will greet you.”
Now open to the public, Yellow Post stands proudly on the newest of three Folly sites, complementing the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, which itself has grown to exhibit over 60 contemporary artworks. Inspired by history and exploring the intricacies of contemporary architecture, Yellow Post adds another reason to visit this much-loved creative destination on the Matakana Coast.