A sunny design for the Brick Bay Folly 2025

03 Dec 2025

The Brick Bay Folly 2025, named Yellow Post, was designed and built by George Culling, Oliver Prisk, Henry Mabin and André Vachias (onsite construction led by Elliot Western) using sustainably sourced glulam timber, polyester fabric, stainless steel fixings and joyful Resene paint.

Yellow Post marks the 10th Folly at Brick Bay, and with its vivacious colour, towering height and reference to the act of gathering, it is the perfect Folly for the anniversary.

The four team members, who have remained close since studying architecture together at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University, started with the playful thought: “how cool would it be to build a giant yellow tower at Brick Bay?” And that they did, in the bright golden yellow of Resene Broom.

Standing as a beacon within the natural landscape, the 2025 Brick Bay Folly is painted in Resene Broom.

Inspiration for the design came from traditional hākari structures learnt from the team in university lectures with Dr. Robin Skinner. The visionary paintings from European settlers of hākari built by Māori further sparked their curiosity for this project.

Hākari were enormous scaffold stages which utilised resources of native hardwoods like kauri and puriri and latched together with torotoro vines. These enormous towers were used by iwi as markers for congregation, celebration and ceremony.

Taking Yellow Post from concept to build was quite the process where the team was coached by construction, engineer and architecture mentors. They were also very fortunate to have ex-classmate and building apprentice Elliot Western on hand to lead the onsite construction, enabling them to avoid a degree of trial and error, and to cut their build time considerably. They reflect fondly on their time building on-site at Brick Bay, camping at the woolshed, waking up to sheep outside their tents each morning and working “extended tradie hours” to meet the build completion deadline. 

The completed Yellow Post stretches an impressive 11 metres high, a myriad of yellow beams forming a union of 108 intersecting nodes. There is a strong sense of geometry in the matrix, and of interconnectedness – a structural metaphor for the Folly’s intention of bringing people together. 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 the gatherings.

As George says, “We tried to extrapolate this internal element through the use of the fabric sheets to create a dialogue between structure and what is held within the structure.”

Painted in the cheerful Resene Broom, the Folly has become a prominent beacon, signalling the arrival and departure of visitors to Brick Bay and becoming a place of congregation. You can see the tower from all over the property, it has a real sense of identity making its place known and felt within the environment.

The team describe the Folly as having a ‘structural wonderness’. “No matter where you are, you will see it, and it will greet you,” says George.

Visit Brick Bay in person at 17 Arabella Lane, Snells Beach, to see the 2025 Folly and other incredible structures, or see more online.

Published: 03 Dec 2025