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.