The return of the Follies: from Traditional to Digital

Abstract

The French word folie stands for delight and pleasure, and therefore fun and happiness. First built in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, follies were buildings constructed purely for aesthetic pleasure, with a notion of nonsense, i.e., with a lack of good sense or foresight, resulting in often extravagant pieces of architecture with no particular function. These architectural features could be found in gardens and in the wider landscape; towers, temples, sham castles, pyramids, grottoes, obelisques or mock ruins of classical buildings, seemingly randomly abandoned, were symbolic statements of constructions not easily understood, sometimes with a practical value as landmarks, conversations places, commemorative of a person or event, as lending interest to a view, or as simple amusement places, often offering a sensorial experience.