I was so excited to take my little people to see “Where the Wild Things Are” last Friday evening – though I had a little apprehension. I worried about too much hype and potential disappointment. Happily, the movie was lovely – really one of the best I have seen in a while. I laughed, I cried, my kids were captivated, and so was I.
Beyond being one of the best adaptations one could ever expect from a 10 sentence kids book, I really found the the imagery and styling so fascinating. Prior to the opening, the design site Booooooom.com held a Where the Wild Things Are fort building contest that ended last week. The winner, Eric Rice, seriously blew me away. I love his design and that it was constructed of recycled palettes and string. I would love to create something like this for children…with Eric’s construction kids could be highly involved.
I spent the long weekend building my fort out old pallets and other discarded materials. I didn’t use any nails or screws to build the actual fort, it’s lashed together with hundreds of feet of string, and is surprisingly sturdy, even on the third floor. I had an awesome time building it, and hope you guys do some more contests in the future.
– Eric
Watching the movie I think I might have spotted a trend. In the movie, Max and the Wild things build a fabulous fort from sticks that is truly awesome. It is textural and shapely in a way that many structures are not.
The interesting thing about it though is that a few weeks back (before the movie came out) I snapped off this picture at the mall in front of an Anthropologie store. I loved the rustic and imperfect wooden structure in the window and it seems positively influenced by the same things that inspired the fort in the movie.
Similarly I found these images of other Anthropologie flowing stick structures. 
This one with the sticks coming right out of the building and completely altering the facade of the building is very exciting.
This way of building, whereby wood is used to create curved and rounded structures seems ripe for garden inspiration. Don’t you think? I am imagining flowy pergolas and arbors. And now that I have seen it at Anthropologie and in what will surely be one of the biggest movies of they year, I think it might be a trend.
I think it is worth mentioning too that I just learned about Patrick Dougherty – an amazing artist who I am now inspired to write a future post about….but I think he might really be the original inspiration. What do you think?
I think you’re right about it being a trend. I saw a new woven wicker-type sculpture in an SF park two weeks ago, one in the Late Show garden show a couple of weeks before that, and we designed one as the entry way to a community garden earlier this year, among many other examples. They look really nice, an old building method but with a contemporary feeling.
Glad you liked my thoughts about Where the Wild Things Are and Patrick Dougherty. If you ever get an opportunity to be in one of his structures–take it. They are as magical as the film was. Love the orange stick entrance by the way.
I recently learned in an art history class that Egyptian peasants used to build entire houses out of wicker. This sounds hideous at first, but the buildings are truly magnificent, and look just like the wild things structures on a smaller scale. According to my teacher, this is actually the reason why Egyptian stone columns were finely fluted–they were imitating columns made of wicker!! If anyone can find pictures of this, I would be truly gratified–I can’t seem to find them anywhere except on the teacher’s film slides.
How I would have loved to see the design competition! The possibilities of building with reed is endless (and potentially very strong), but what Patrick Dougherty does with willow saplings is magic!
I thought of Andy Goldsworthy’s approach to building this morning – http://tinyurl.com/37w867
My wife and I both thought that Patrick Dougherty was the influence. He is an old friend and I hope that film makers honor his work directly.
Ted Hirsch