Brick Bay has officially unveiled the winner of the 2026 Brick Bay Folly competition, Within the Wings of the Kāruhiruhi, a sculptural architectural installation inspired by the pied shag and the fleeting rhythms of the natural world.

Now open to visitors on the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, the folly was designed and built by a team of recent University of Auckland architecture graduates: Nyle Macaranas, Sufyaan Chuttur, Naomi Felicia, Jasleen Basra and Rain Nario.

Inspired by the image of a Kāruhiruhi (pied shag) drying its wings in the sun, the structure takes the form of two sweeping timber wings that welcome visitors into the landscape. Wrapped in woven fallen leaves stitched into coir netting, the folly has been intentionally designed to evolve over time. As the leaves weather, curl and gradually fall away, the timber structure beneath is slowly revealed.

The result is an architectural work that embraces impermanence rather than resisting it.

“A folly traditionally sits somewhere between sculpture and architecture,” says the team. “We wanted to create something that felt alive within the landscape. Something that changes with time and encourages people to pause and notice the small shifts happening around them.”

The Brick Bay Folly competition gives emerging architects and designers the opportunity to take a concept from sketchbook to full-scale reality, creating a temporary architectural installation for the renowned Brick Bay Sculpture Trail. Winning teams receive mentorship and support from leading figures across architecture, engineering and construction.

For this year’s team, the project represented their first experience building at full scale.

“We are very inexperienced in construction, and none of us had ever built anything beyond scale models at university,” the team said. “This project would not have been possible without the guidance and generosity of our mentors, and we are incredibly grateful for their support.”

As the project evolved from concept to construction, the structure underwent extensive refinement with support from the Brick Bay Folly programme’s key partners: Cassidy Construction, Cheshire Architects, Structure Design, Unitec and Resene. Additional project support was provided by PLYTECH, AG Metalworks, SPAX Pacific, Pure Nature and Alistair Munro of Angus Muir Design, who CNC-cut the project’s curved bracing components and supported the team throughout fabrication.

The final structure combines 140x45 Pinus Radiata framing, curved marine plywood ribs and thousands of preserved fallen leaves collected by the team around Auckland.

“The leaf idea felt like a huge gamble from the beginning,” said Naomi Felicia. “We were never completely sure if it would work, how it would look at full scale, or how it would be received. But after building a prototype during the proposal stage, we fell in love with it and wanted to include it regardless of our doubts.”

Brick Bay Sculpture Trust Special Projects Manager Rachael Lovelace says the Folly programme continues to provide a rare and meaningful opportunity for emerging designers in Aotearoa.

“Every year we see teams arrive with ambitious ideas and leave having transformed not only a landscape, but their own confidence and understanding of what’s possible. Watching this year’s team bring such a poetic and challenging concept to life has been incredibly rewarding.”

Within the Wings of the Kāruhiruhi is now open to the public at Brick Bay Sculpture Trail on the Matakana Coast.

Learn more: https://www.brickbay.co.nz/brick-bay-folly-2026

About Brick Bay Folly

The Brick Bay Folly is an annual architectural design-build competition that invites emerging architects to create bold, temporary structures for the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail. The programme supports experimentation at the intersection of architecture, sculpture and landscape, while providing mentorship and real-world construction experience for the next generation of designers.

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