Thesis: Dillon Day

Thesis: Dillon Day

Bittersweet Commons

Bittersweet Commons explores the intersection of weathering, ecology, and civic engagement through a series of follies embedded in pocket parks across London’s boroughs. This project proposes these weathering structures as dynamic, evolving spaces for community interaction and stewardship. Each folly serves as a gathering point where local residents can engage in ongoing discussions about the maintenance, care, and future of their public parks. As the follies naturally weather and change over time, they embody the tension between decay and emergence, fostering a deeper understanding of the ecological processes that shape both the built environment and our relationship with it. Through these spaces, Bittersweet Commons invites Londoners to embrace the impermanence of architecture and explore how weathering—rather than being a problem—can inspire a more collaborative, sustainable approach to urban ecology and community governance.

Dillon Thomas Day
Dillon Thomas Day
Bittersweet Commons fosters a civic model where local residents actively engage in the care and management of public parks. Positioned within London’s boroughs, each folly serves as a gathering point for discussion and collaboration, allowing communities to collectively oversee park upkeep. In this way, the project utilizes enchantment as a civic force, and by drawing attention to the vitality and agency of material processes, it encourages citizens to act not from obligation alone, but from a sense of wonder, attachment, and shared responsibility toward the environment.
Dillon Thomas Day
Dillon Thomas Day

Dillon Thomas Day
The follies are constructed from limestone, designed to promote accelerated weathering through material interaction with the environment. The porous nature of the stone facilitates erosion, allowing the structures to visibly age and transform over time. This deep weathering process reflects the project’s philosophy of embracing ruination as permissible part of the built environment.
Dillon Thomas Day

Dillon Thomas Day
Incorporating vegetation into the follies allows for fast weathering, creating visible change within a single season. The plants interact with the architecture, requiring continuous upkeep and engagement from the community. This quick transformation fosters a closer connection to nature and highlights the cyclical, ongoing relationship between people and the environment.
Dillon Thomas Day
Bittersweet Commons integrates community engagement and weathering to create an ever-changing public space. Residents actively participate in the stewardship of their parks while witnessing the dynamic processes of decay and growth, both through the slowness of erosion and the rapidness brought by vegetation. This project reconsiders our relationship to our environment and the public space that can foster an intimate connection between people, architecture, and ecology.
Dillon Thomas Day

Dillon Thomas Day