Connecting Colindale: A Flight Path Folly by Andre Kong Studio and Wayward
Connecting Colindale: A Flight Path Folly © Luke O’Donovan
A Flight Path Folly provides public seating around planters that host a range of scented herbs and flowers. Overhead, coloured piping taking the form of flight paths draw on the local area’s aviation history, drawing visual links between the Colindale parks and providing space for the plants below to climb and grow over time. As the sun hits the installation from above, shadows of the twisting flight paths are cast onto the ground, drawing users’ attention to the hidden green spaces around the borough.
Connecting Colindale: A Flight Path Folly © Luke O’Donovan
Connecting Colindale: A Flight Path Folly © Luke O’Donovan
Andre Kong Studio was set up in 2016 (and fully launched in 2021) by the Portuguese-born British architect Andre Sampaio Kong. The design and architecture studio explores how material tradition, context and technological innovation can be unexpectedly combined to alter the way we develop fun and elegant solutions for sustainable and inclusive buildings, objects and experiences.
Wayward is a London-based landscape, art and architecture practice – an award- winning collective of designers, artists and urban growers. Since 2006, Wayward has pioneered new methodologies in the creative use of underutilised land and meanwhile spaces, transforming derelict sites into large-scale, design-driven spaces that engage local communities and inspire international audiences. Wayward’s projects over the years have always been platforms for collaboration, seeking diversity, support and creativity as well as creating a nurturing space for new designers. This partnership is just such an example.
Afterlife
Though initially commissioned as a temporary installation, Connecting Colindale: A Flight Path Folly has been adopted by London Borough of Barnet’s Green Spaces Team and will remain in situ for up to 25 years.