Sky Fold is open

SkyFold is open, as a place of welcome at VISUAL, Carlow! SkyFold is a collaboration between Emmett Scanlon, and Laurence Lord / Jeffrey Bolhuis of AP+E.

As people return to public buildings, VISUAL, the centre for Contemporary Art in Carlow, Ireland, has commissioned an exciting new place of welcome.

In March 2020 many of Ireland’s buildings became off limits due to public health restrictions. A year later, as Ireland moved to open public buildings after a difficult and isolating pandemic year, VISUAL launched an open call for an installation that would announce that VISUAL was once again a place of welcome. Following an open call, architects Jeffrey Bolhuis, Laurence Lord and Emmett Scanlon were appointed to make SkyFold at VISUAL’s front door and facing College Park.

 With SkyFold the trio of architects wanted to reemphasise the relationship between people, buildings, and the natural environment.  As people began to gather again following a year of intense awareness of individual space and limits, the architects used SkyFold to support social contact, blurring boundaries visually and spatially. This blurring happens at two scales – the scale of the VISUAL building and at the scale of the visitor.

 Using reflective mirrored vinyl applied to the existing façade, the glass walls of the building are “folded” into the sky. The new mirrored surface reflects the colour and tone of the ever-changing Carlow sky. As it does, the familiar form and shapes of the building change depending on the weather by day, or the pattern of lighting inside by night.

 For the visitor, the architects have “folded” out the building into the park landscape. A purple painted pathway is applied to encourage visitors or passers-by into new spatial arrangements with the familiar building. Orange, modular circular seating has been designed by the architects and made by the team at VISUAL, to offer respite from the sun and shelter from the rain at the entrance. Arranged in a broken circle, the seating is placed to encourage conversation, but its alignment reflects an ongoing transition into new post-lockdown patterns and arrangements of social gathering and human contact.

 Taken together, this pair of folding strategies are intended to prompt a conversation about how people, buildings and planet are connected. Buildings can no longer be considered as autonomous or distinct from the natural world, with construction being one of the most significant polluters on the planet. Neither can buildings be considered independent of what should surely be their primary social function – to enable humans to gather, converse and collaborate.

.SkyFold is at VISUAL, Carlow, until the end of September 30th 2021.

 All photography by Aisling McCoy.