Cultivate

Join us for the launch of Folly 02, an irregular journal that supports literary and critical writing in architectural history.

The second edition of Folly called for texts on the theme of cultivation. To cultivate is to establish and develop, to care continuously. To nurture and form, whether it is for plants or culture. When humans started to cultivate the land, the structures they built to store grain were the first architectures. Both agriculture and architecture have been intertwined since the Neolithic Era: cultivated in conversation with each other, from the mythic origins of architecture’s beginnings, the agricultural texts of Vitruvius and Varro, the manicured gardens of country houses, to industrialised farming. The Folly editorial team invited texts and images that spoke to this relationship, looking at the intimacies between selves and others, objects and sites. What and who have we attended and tended to?

The edition begins with an extract from Varro’s treatise On Agriculture, which opens into a series of essays; Andrea Branzi’s synthesised vision of agriculture and architecture, the canals of the Veneto that support the Sant’Erasmo artichoke, the cleaning equipment of Aldo Rossi’s Modena Cemetery, Superstudio’s cultivation of the myth of the farmer Zeno Fiaschi, the life cycles in the garden of Lisbon’s Ajuda Palace, an interview with Renzo Rucli on kozolec, to the architecture of fire lookout posts in North America.

Both Folly 01 and 02 will be for sale, with a discounted price for the purchase of both editions.

Please get in touch to let us know of any access requirements that you might have and how we can best accommodate these by emailing publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk. Please note that there is no step-free access to the first floor, where this event will take place.