Project by Aditi Gangadhar

Wolfish Withdrawals – Follies of Ferality is a proposal that imagines rewilding as a designed process, a sequence of structures that experience a birth and death cycle rather than standing as permanent fixtures. The proposal introduces six biodegradable follies, placed in phases just outside and around the Wolf Conservation Center’s fence line, forming a transitional ring to coax wolves out of their enclosures and into a self-directed range. Each folly is grown from interlocking mycelium units, their branching geometries inspired by deer bones and antlers, a tactile echo of prey and the cycles of life and death that sustain the wolves. Inside each unit is a calcium-rich core which is a hidden chewable prize that only emerges when the mycelium softens and melts away, turning the disintegrating structures into enrichment objects for the wolves themselves. These units merge upward into stump-like conical forms, recalling the hollow tree stumps where wolves often seek shelter in the wild. The six follies serve distinct roles: the clay Helmholtz Howler amplifies howls across the landscape; the Fog Catcher drapes hessian netting over a mycelium cone to harvest fog and dew into drinking water; the Salt Spire offers mineral licks, deliberately drawing deer and other prey closer to the wolves; the Signal Stalker rises as a decaying satellite mast- a ghost of surveillance slowly reclaimed by moss; the Wound Watcher provides a discreet first-aid hut for rare human intervention; and the Decay Dropper releases meat via wax corks that melt away in timed stages, teaching wolves to scavenge. Each folly has a life arc. Some live briefly, the Salt Spire dissolves in rain and under deers’ tongues within months, and the Decay Dropper exhausts its wax corks in weeks. Others endure longer like the Helmholtz Howler’s clay shell cracks and erodes over years, the Signal Stalker slumps slowly into moss-covered ruin once the satellite dish is taken away, and the mycelium frames beneath them all soften and collapse into the soil, revealing the calcium cores as chewable remnants for the wolves. This phased placement is deliberate: early follies like the Salt Spire and Decay Dropper lure wolves just beyond the fence, while the longer-lasting structures : Howler, Fog Catcher, Signal Stalker, become fading waypoints as the wolves expand their range from 15 to 45 square kilometers. By designing for impermanence, Wolfish Withdrawals frames architecture as a scaffold for freedom, structures that grow, serve, and then rot away, leaving no scars as the wolves finally withdraw fully into their wild instincts.