Weathering and Collision

The weathering "station" along the transect loop collects and organizes limestone outcrops, boulders, and small stones found scattered along the slope. The path reveals the weathering stone in its varying stages of transition to soil. Stone bars inscribed with reference dates and processes segment the path, dividing the walk into periods of time correlated to the time needed in this climate region for limestone to weather to soil. Climbing the slope, the narrow path and steepness of terrain force the body to lean forward. Looking down at the progressively larger stones, with legs burning, the forces of gravity and weathering are revealed.

The collision station is located along the fault line between Ordovician and Cambrian Period limestones. The transect loop follows the fault up a rock outcrop where the tremendous force of colliding tectonic plates millions of years ago thrusted older Cambrian strata over younger Ordovician strata in a northwest direction. Footholes will be chiseled into the outcrop allowing the body to climb along the fault, walking the line between two periods of time. Oolitic limestone slabs will mark the fault line path on either end of the outcrop. This type of limestone is scattered around the fault outcrop area, and was formed between 200 and 300 million years ago when East Tennessee was under a shallow sea.

Inventory and Analysis Boards

geologic history and present day North American topography

regional location: Knox Co., SIWR, Douglas Dam

site: River, Ridge, and Fault

CriticalMASS 2012

April 12-13 I had the honor of presenting my thesis progress during CriticalMASS at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. The event is organized by first and second year graduate architecture students at UNCC. From the CriticalMASS website:

CriticalMass started in 2002. It was the idea of a handful of graduate students wishing to share thesis project work with other graduate schools of architecture from the Southeast Region. At that time, the students were interested in the idea of place and region, and the event sought to bring diverse projects from different institutions together so that the students could share, and perhaps understand, what commonalities might be present in their final project work. 

During the event, 11 students from across the country presented their thesis projects to a review panel of UNCC professors and Distinguished Critic, Brigitte Shim. I found the feedback to be very helpful, but even more helpful was seeing the caliber of thesis work from across the country. It's very exciting to see the amazing ideas coming from emerging designers. Here are some photos to illustrate.

studios were cancelled so students could attend reviews

a library addition and wastewater treatment as community resource in Miami

nice hand graphics

I was so impressed with the models made from found objects for this project in New Orleans

at Georgia Tech, a student is researching new types of wood construction methods

hey - that's my stuff!

idea sharing and discussions abound

more cool models!

A huge thank you to the students at UNCC for organizing this amazing event, and to my professors for giving me the opportunity to attend!

Thinking ahead... to Monday's Pre-Defense!

Tonight I'm working on clarifying the conceptual framework on which my thesis is based. As I was re-reading some of my work, I found something that made me stop and think to myself ... If I was on my thesis committee I would totally ask me this question at my pre-defense. So, in the event that I get asked this question, I figured I better write down the response for practice. So here it is, the scary question I just asked myself when I thought I found a hole that blew up my entire thesis.


Why bother to reveal anything about landscape processes that have been (or are being) degraded by human development if you don't plan to remediate any of it?

eek! Well, that's a good question. The reasoning goes back to an earlier post on Site Selection. In this post I stated, "If my intent is to reveal something about ecology, it would complicate the project if ecological remediation was required first. What I needed to find was a site with a dedicated user group and an already rich ecology."

In this early thinking, and in choosing SIWR as my site, I made a conscious decision to forgo direct ecological regeneration as an end to my eco-revelatory design elements. SIWR is currently undergoing ecological restoration; transitioning from an old farmstead to a wildlife refuge managed for habitat. Instead of remediating a degraded ecology, I hope my design proposal can help restore a holistic view of people's relationship within broader environmental systems. There are many places that desperately need ecological restoration, but there are many more that have yet to be spoiled. My tactic is to (very hopefully) create an experience that is affecting of people's future decisions regarding our environment. My wish is to attenuate park users to expanded ideas of time, place, and process while creating intimate spaces where they feel connected to the landscape. In these spaces, and along the paths between them, I hope people will begin to feel less alienated from the world of natural phenomena. I hope it will make them care more. It's my proactive approach to saving the planet.

A piece of Rome Formation (a mixture of shale, siltstone, and sandstone) from the Cambrian Period (~500 million years ago) sitting on a piece of overturned pine bark. The stone was found about 20' from this segment of fallen bark along the ridge transect.

Time and Terrain

“A pebble polished by waves is pleasurable to the hand, not only because of its soothing shape, but because it expresses the slow process of its formation; a perfect pebble on the palm materializes duration, it is time turned into shape.” 

-Juhani Pallasmaa 

 The Eyes of the Skin

Metamorphic pebbles along the peninsula. More than likely they are of Precambrian origin.

 

Working toward a presentation

I'm experimenting with ways to represent my work. Here's a first attempt at Uplift. What do you think?

Space Experiment: Uplift

Now that the transects and processes have been identified, it's finally time to start designing! In an effort to design from a phenomenological stance, I began by experimenting directly with one the site's phenomena - the experience of uplift. The site I chose is located along the Ridge Transect. I learned from the land manager of SIWR that this small clearing (pictured above) was leveled for a house, but the house was never built. I can understand why someone would want to live up here. There are wonderful views to the south of the river and the Smoky Mountains in the distance. To the north the adjacent ridges and the river trailing past the islands also make a fine view. But, fortunately for me, this site sits empty and is the perfect venue to reveal the process of uplift. 

March 27, 2012 - 1:30pm. I began by marking the transect path with stakes and flagging tape. I immediately noticed that the act of bisecting the clearing had a profound effect on the way I perceived the space.

Next, I brushed the leaves tot he side of the transect near the center of the clearing. I found a pile of sandstone rocks that had been pushed aside when the clearing was leveled. I selected rocks from this pile and began to experiment with them. I wanted to capture the gesture of uplift. I knew from studying the USGS geologic sections of the area that the rock strata are roughly at a 45° angle to the northwest. I've also observed this angle (most notably at the fault formation) on site.

I used the transect path for scale, and assigned it a width of 5 feet. 

I wanted to show the angle and northwest direction of uplift. You can see in the shadows that the sun is beginning to set  in the direction this photo was taken - toward the west.

I made notes and sketches and verified north on my phone's compass. The pencil eraser is pointing north.

Next, I extrapolated the design to full scale, marking the site with more stakes and flagging tape. At this point I refined my design ideas and began thinking about how the stone structures (outcrops) would interface with the bodies of the park users. I want the outcrops to capture the gesture of uplift from a geologic standpoint, but also to initiate dialog between the user and the process of uplift. 

Uplift is a process that morphs and warps the horizontal ground plane, making some locations feel low and enclosed (the valleys) and others perched high and closer to the sky (the ridges). From a scale perspective, the outcrops are sized to feel massive, yet approachable. The outcrops give a sense of grounded-ness in the earth; that they are a part of a much larger subsurface geology, yet they are of a comprehensible and understandable scale for humans. This connection to the ground and the structures below is integral to the conversation of uplift, as it begins within the earth and thrusts upward.

Speaking the the vertical processes involved in uplift, I wanted the outcrops to allow the user to make a strong connection to the sky as well. From an uplifted position, the sky feels closer. You are surrounded by sky, instead of walls of ridges. The cleared area is circumscribed by 9 trees. The trees make a space on the ground plane, but also frame the view above. To initiate this aspect of uplift with the user, I am looking for ways to design the outcrops so that the body is invited to lay back on the structure and look upward.

From Geologic Time to the Present Day Site: A Framework

 

The above chart will serve as the framework for studying present day phenomena as evidence of past geologic processes. The design intent is to choreograph an experience for park users in which they encounter a series of revelatory moments along 3 transect paths; the Ridge Transect, the River Transect, and the Fault Line Transect. The processes being revealed are part of the Sedimentary rock cycle, which is integral to the formation of the ridges and valleys in the East TN region.

source

 

Evidence of collision that has led to uplift along the Fault Line Transect

The experience of uplift along the Ridge Transect

Weathering takes place at multiple scales. This small piece of sandstone stone has been weathered by freeze/thaw actions.

Metamorphic pebbles have been transported from the Appalachian Mountains by the French Broad River and deposited in the floodplain at SIWR.

Working Abstract

Landscape reshapes the world not only because of its physical
and experiential characteristics but also because of its eidetic
content, its capacity to contain and express ideas and so
engage the mind.

James Corner, Recovering Landscape (1999)

I argue that social policy and environmental design often fail
today because they are founded on the superficiality and forced
contact of connection rather than on the depth and genuine
contact of relationship.

David Seamon, Dwelling, Seeing, and Designing:
Toward a Phenomenological Ecology (1993)

ABSTRACT
Eco-revelatory design (ERD) (Brown, Harkness, Johnston) emerged in 1998 as a reaction to polarity within the field of landscape architecture. Two predominant schools of thought, one insistently cultural and the other assertively ecological, reigned over the conceptual and theoretical dialog in landscape design and planning. The authors of ERD proposed a design theory in which landscape architecture is “intended to reveal and interpret ecological phenomena, processes and relationships.” (Landscape Journal xvi)

Proponents of ERD recognized that landscape architecture alters and directs both cultural and ecological systems. Furthermore, they acknowledged landscape architects’ capacity to direct human experience and reveal, through design, aspects of ecology and culture. This integrated approach provides opportunity for people to place themselves in and as part of an interconnected socio-ecologic world, reinforcing the relationships between humans and the bio-geosphere. In this thesis I explore phenomenological design as a method to reveal ecological systems and comment on the cultural systems that impact them. The intention is to reveal, through design, the cultural relevance of ecological imperatives at multiple spatial and temporal scales.

In design, phenomenology is a method used to understand place as a gestalt of concrete, qualitative phenomena. Phenomenological design methods will be used to explore a series of eco-revelatory design interventions along three transect paths. The interventions seek to translate four process indices of the sedimentary rock cycle: weathering, uplift, transport, and collision. Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge (SIWR) is the site and lens with which I will explore these concepts over a period of three seasons. SIWR is an ecologically managed peninsula along the floodplain of the French Broad River in east Knox County, TN. The site provides an uncommon opportunity to explore a landscape that appears natural, but is managed for agriculture and habitat.

The Story of a River and a Ridge

Many factors contribute to the story of SIWR, but to me, the French Broad River and the ridges that transect the site are the standout characters. The topography of the site is very typical of the East Tennessee Ridge and Valley Province, but there's something about the way the river perpendicularly transects the ridges, and about the vast floodplain and islands that begins to distill the ancient processes that formed this part of the continent. If you look closely, it's as though the site is inviting you to have a conversation about its past.

SIWR 2011 Aerial Photo

The next question then, is how can design help translate this story to park users?

A transect is a path along which one records and counts occurrences of the phenomena of study. The transect is an important geographic tool for revealing physical changes from one place to another. I am performing my site inventory and analysis along two transects, one along the river, the other along a ridge. 

Key Plan

The  Ridge Transect  trails the  northern end of Bays Mountain and a remnant of this ridge that has been separated by the French Broad River and its floodplain. The Ridge Transect is accessible adjacent from the parking area. To begin this walk, one first ascends the steep, northwestern facing slope. The transect then turns southwest following the ridge top. The topography is less steep along the crest of the ridge, and large stands of Beech, Hickory, Maple, Pine, and Oak are abundant. There are many uprooted trees, evidence of strong winds.  About 150’ from the southwestern bend in the path, there is a level, circular clearing in the trees about fifty feet in diameter. The clearing frames a view of the sky. Views to the southeast show the river valley and rural development with the Appalachian Mountains and foothills in the distance. Looking northwest there are views of the parallel meadow valley and adjacent ridge. Near the highest point of the ridge small outcrops of Rome Formation are numerous. Formed during the Cambrian Period, Rome Formation is the oldest subsurface geologic material on the SIWR site. Rome Formation, as well as the other geologic parent material at SIWR, is sedimentary and was formed during the Cambrian and Ordovician Periods between 550 and 435 million years ago. During these periods, present day East Tennessee was under a shallow, epicontinental sea. Calcium deposits that precipitated out of this ancient sea formed layers on the continental crust, and over the ages became lithified into the limestones, shales, and sandstones that are typical of the Valley and Ridge Province we see today. The northwest exposure and upward angle of the sedimentary outcrop  strata reveal the intense forces that shaped the Ridge and Valley Province during a series of orogenies, or mountain building events. Beginning with the Grenville Orogen (about 1bya) repeated forces from colliding continental plates, subsequent rifting, and uplift from subducting oceanic plates off the eastern coast have produced the  “rumpled carpet” that is known as the Ridge and Valley Province. The ridge tops are generally composed of sandstone, a major component of Rome Formation, which is less prone to erosion. The valleys are composed of the newer, Ordovician Period limestones and shales, which typically erode much faster than sandstone and produce rich, fertile soils. The Rome Formation outcrop is evidence of these ancient and powerful tectonic events, that thrusted the older Cambrian Period strata over the younger Ordovician Period strata. The entire site, with its parallel steep, rocky ridges, and rolling, fertile valleys tells the story of its own formation. 

Experience of the Ridge Transect

The River Transect parallels the French Broad and intersects the Ridge Transect about midway. The southernmost end of the transect lies at the tip of peninsula, where young forests are replacing fallow agricultural fields. This area is in the floodway, as evidenced by the dark, productive, alluvial soils. Freshly tilled earth reveals pebbles of metamorphic rock. These pebbles speak to the origin of the French Broad River and tell us about the topography of the Appalachian Mountains. The French Broad River presently flows 213 miles from Transylvania County, North Carolina, westward across the Appalachian Mountains to the state of Tennessee. Because the river flows across the mountains, instead of draining east toward the coast, we know that the topography of the mountains must have risen after the river formed its westward drainage. The stories of the French Broad River and the Valley and Ridge Province are closely intertwined, with the river slowly and steadily eroding its course through a rising topography. The metamorphic pebbles in the soil have been carried to SIWR by the French Broad from the Appalachian Mountains, where metamorphic rock is the geologic parent material. SIWR’s namesake islands are composed of accumulations of these pebbles, but several relatively recent factors have changed the islands, and the floodplain, drastically. The French Broad Corridor has a long history of human use. The floodplains have served as seasonal encampments for Native Americans as far back as 12,000 B.C.and within the last 150 years as permanent agricultural settlements. Agricultural practices in the past 150 years, such as clear-cutting the alluvial forests and tilling the soil, have contributed to increased erosion rates, resulting in more sediment in the river. This sediment is changing the morphology of the river channel, as well as the islands at SIWR. Deposits of silt and clay sediment have led to seven small islands coagulating into two large islands. This is a physical, directly visible effect of the sediment, but its effects on aquatic wildlife, while not as visible, are still strongly felt. Another recent character in the story is the Douglas Hydroelectric Dam. Built in the early 1940’s, the dam now regulates the flow of the French Broad, preventing the seasonal floods that replenished the floodplains with layers of alluvium. The dam also acts as a barrier, preventing metamorphic mountain rock from entering the river below the dam. The combination of increased sediment from agricultural practices and the regulatory control of the dam, have changed the geography of SIWR in the past 150 years at a vastly accelerated rate.

Experience of the River Transect

Foundry Event Sneak Peak!

Did you know the rocks that make up the East Tennessee Valley and Ridge Province were formed during the Cambrian and Ordovician periods and are between 450-500 million years old? Tennessee was under a shallow, epicontinental sea back then, and that led to the formation of the sedimentary rocks (such as shale and limestone) that make up the geology of our region. Neat!

the fog lifts

8:32, 8:34, 8:36, 8:38, 8:40

8ish and 10ish

like a ghost through a fog

On February 7 I got up early so I could make it SIWR for the sunrise. For some reason I had it in my mind that I would find a nice spot to sit in the meadow to watch the sun rise. Instead, I walked into a ghost world.

the river is in the background

According to NOAA, there are 4 ingredients for fog:

1. Light winds through the lowest few thousand feet above the ground during the overnight hours.
2. Recent rainfall to enhance moisture available for fog making.
3. Clear skies overnight.
4. Soil moisture that is near normal or above normal

The morning of February 7, all of the above applied. More than likely, steam fog was formed when cold air from the valley and ridges moved over the warm water in the French Broad. When the cool air mixed with the warm moist air over the water, the moist air cooled until its humidity reached 100% and fog formed over the river and spread across the peninsula.

hoar frost on a spider web

But there was a second process at work. On cold clear nights, when heat is lost to the sky, objects in the landscape can become cooler than the surrounding air. When fog passes by these "supercooled" objects, a thin layer of frost forms, as seen above on the spider web. 


Walking through SIWR site on a foggy, frosty morning changes your perspective. When your ability to see the background diminishes, you are forced to reckon with the foreground. There is no long view, just what is right in front of you. You have to live in the present when you're walking in the fog, because you cannot see what is in front of you or behind you. The future and past just don't exist.

meadow :: ancient forest

Site Selection

Initially I thought a site close to an urban center would be the best place to explore my thesis topic. If I'm interested in revealing something about site ecology I need an audience, and an urban or suburban site would easily provide that. However, many large urban open spaces are brownfields, or, at the very least, have been marred in some way by human development.

The vacant General Shale Brick Factory site is in close proximity to Downtown Knoxville and UTK Campus, but like most large, available spaces in urban areas, it would require extensive remediation before other design concepts could be explored.

If my intent is to reveal something about ecology, it would complicate the project if ecological remediation was required first. What I needed to find was a site with a dedicated user group and an already rich ecology.

SIWR is located about 20 miles east of downtown Knoxville on the very edge of Knox County.

Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge (SIWR) is a 360 acre wildlife sanctuary located on a peninsula along the French Broad River. The land is managed by Knox County Parks and the Legacy Parks Foundation. The site consists of an extensive floodplain meadow, a small wetland, several wooded bluffs, and an upland pond. The site is home to over 150 species of birds and 50 species of fish.

A mown path meanders through the meadow in late September.

What makes SIWR the right site for my thesis? There are many reasons - It has an existing rich and complex ecology, it is an important area to protect for future generations of many different rare species, the French Broad River has a unique history unto itself, and it is an important resource for human enjoyment as well.