The editorial board of IMPRINT. would like to congratulate the students henceforth featured. Through this publication, we hope to celebrate the capstone projects of this year’s graduates and the diverse personalities and interests that they represent. As these graduates’ time at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Architecture and Design comes to a close, we wish them the best in future endeavors and hope that this book will serve as a small token by which to remember the College as they embark on the path they’ve chosen.
Founded by students in January of 2013, IMPRINT. is a print and online publication series that seeks to expand and encourage discourse in the design fields. By showcasing student work, we hope to ignite conversation and spark increased interest in the issues addressed by students. IMPRINT. seeks to broaden the understanding of the work produced in the College of Architecture and Design, its place in the past, its impact on the present and its influence on the future.
john ballentine kristin bowman manila bui jenna chambers sarah cunningham macy hale juliet harlow emily johnson morgan king julia mcclintic leslie mitchell coleen o’leary
Interior Design | Undergraduate The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Interior Design Program maintains a legacy of excellence in the sciences and applications of design as the leader of interior design education in Tennessee for more than eighty years. The program provides a foundation for the practice of design, collaboration, innovation and growth as a professional. The result of four years of study in the program is the Bachelor of Science in Interior Design, a professionally accredited degree from the Council for Interior Design Accreditation.
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERIOR DESIGN
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERIOR DESIGN
victoria stahl
KRISTIN BOWMAN
This semester our studio participated in the ACSA-AISC Steel Competition. The objective was to design a library with a innovative use of steel. The Cormac McCarthy Library, along Front Ave. beneath the Henley St. Bridge, bridges the gap between The University and downtown Knoxville by welcoming and supporting both communities. The library focuses on the research of ecopsychology, the study of humans in nature. Treating the library building as a landscape, we develop the ground plane, the canopy above, and the pavilions that fall between. The ground plane is extracted from the site’s original topography to create terraced levels within the library. The south end of the building is cantilevered above an outdoor promenade
MANILA BUI
This project was a collaboration with Jennifer Nicklas. We worked together to design a steel research library dedicated to Cormac McCarthy. Because McCarthy’s work takes particular care to create intricate characters, it was sensible to create a library that focused on the psychological nature of humans. This library would be a place for psychologists to participate in their research of the human mind, and it would also aid writers in the community to create and develop realistic characters.
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERIOR DESIGN
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERIOR DESIGN
space to blur the line between inside and outside, while giving the researchers a platform to observe humans in nature. Steel is utilized to create the main structure of the canopy and the pavilions beneath. The library creates a place for people to get away from your home, school, or work and be one in nature.
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERIOR DESIGN
The Libray of American Social Unrest is a library based on the idea of an urban lantern. The lantern is to shine out as a beacon to draw people into the library that acts as a forum of sorts for any social issues in the community. The library houses audiovisual and photographic American history of wars and social unrest not only as a local resource but a national one. The library brings diverse groups of people together, united by one cause.
MORGAN KING
My final project is a Geography Library for The University of Tennessee. It is a steel mountain that overlooks Henley Street bridge. The massive structure acts as a gateway into the city from the mountains.
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERIOR DESIGN
JULIET HARLOW
JULIA MCCLINTIC
COLEEN O’LEARY
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERIOR DESIGN
Serving as a research library for behavioral disorders, the structure is to become an integral part of the national landscape, fostering growth and exploration in a field of study, which is practically forgotten by the public. A hard topic of conversation, mental health problems have indirect effects on all individuals whether they want to admit it or not. The research library will host psychologists who intend to study these effects as well as treatment methods so that they, too, may contribute to a solution to these disorders. Through the use of private and group workspaces, as well as having areas of public interaction in both interior and exterior zones, the issues at hand may become a topic, which is not shied away from. By creating a familiarized environment as the backdrop for a new type of conversation, the uncomfortable instances of bringing up a touchy subject become ordinary. Like fog forming over a river, this space mimics the natural form of a hovering cloud. A path and plaza fits into the natural topography on the west part of the site while the building gently presses into the landscape on the east side of the site. Two solid forms on the main level support the floating upper levels of the library. Level one is a public space for entry, gatherings, and public education. Levels two and three house the stacks and study areas. The site provides a palette of textures, few of which are considered smooth or refined. Gritty natural compositions combined with defined orthogonal architecture organize the site into outdoor and indoor spaces. The blurred distinction between manmade and naturally occurring landscape gives the user a serene experience. Whether walking around the building on the loop path or climbing the stair up into the floor above, the user feels relaxed and lifted when interacting with the space.
Historically, Knoxville has been a fragmented city, divided into very separate neighborhoods stretching to the north, east, south, and west. Certain geographical barriers, such as the river and the railroad tracks, have prevented the sub-communities within Knoxville from coming together and finding unity, but most of the separation is deeply rooted in the history of the region and the ways with which conflict has been dealt. The path to seeking unity and a sense of togetherness in the Knoxville community must start by breaking social barriers and creating common ground on which all community members can stand. A commonality between the neighborhoods and populations within Knoxville is the significance of food. Food is a basic provision needed to sustain life and yet the act of sharing a meal connects people in ways that allows them to feel as if they are doing much more than simply surviving. Food is a resource that all people need, but not all community members have access to fresh food. The concept of a community café is to feed all people, regardless of their ability to pay for it. People can volunteer their time in exchange for a meal and prices are suggested so that patrons have the option to donate more than what is asked. The design of Provisions Community Café explores the ways in which an interior space can unify a community by drawing people in, breaking social routines, and creating an atmosphere where conversation can happen naturally and without social stigma. Provisions seeks to do much more to feed the people of Knoxville; it seeks to feed the spirit of the city and to bring people together over a meal to create a sense of community that transcends historical cynicism and social hesitations.
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERIOR DESIGN
ADVISORS: David Matthews
taylor heim
thomas agee
paige jessop
daniel allen
chloe lane
ali alsaleh
jeffery lowery
kelly arnold paul attea
wanqui loy
melissa dooley
sean miller
matthew barnett
zachary mulitauaopele
jean paul baron
hayley mull
john battle
garrett nelli
emily bingham
jennifer nguyen
caitlin brainerd
kyle nichols christina owens
dylan buc
matthew ractliffe
gustavo bustamante
tyler rasnake
gus carodine III
cody rau
goeffrey cavalier
justin relyea
bailey comer
michael sena
marianela d’aprile jarod dotson
demetrius smith
taylor dotson
amy stewart matthew sutton
jared eisenhower
chuan tang
zane espinosa
tucker tingle
emma gill alisha gotham
michael turko
bradley gould
joseph wessels
patrick green
lewis williams
ethan griffin
ke yang
holly harris
hunter young haley zimmerman
melissa hatchett adam heilbronn
Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is pursued as an education dedicated to intelligent, critically aware, sustainable and innovative actions in architectural design. The School of Architecture’s commitment to excellence has earned it its place as the top-ranked program in Tennessee for nearly fifty years and as one of the best programs in the nation. The Bachelor of Architecture, a five-year, professionally accredited degree of the National Architecture Accreditation Board, enables students to advance to robust professional careers across the fields of design and industry in locations across the globe.
BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE
BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE
Architecture | Undergraduate
THOMAS AGEE Braking Stasis
ALI ALSALEH Refuge in the Rubble: A Contemporary Garden of Eden for the war-orphans of Iraq
Life contains instances in which we find ourselves stagnant; waiting on the world to give us what we want, yet we are not aware of what it has to offer. It seems as though humanity spends its life searching for ways to escape it; to know life in every breath is the only way we can be alive. Focusing on dead moments in time and space, due to neglect, overlook, or failure, I seek the activation of these malfunctioned spaces. Specifically on the interjection of these spaces so to break the stasis quo, and make people conscious of what typically lies in disregard. With such an expansive topic I focused on locating in a dense area in terms of programmatic use yet containing moments in which the communication between the user and their environment and users within that
This thesis intends to explore the role of space as a tool for refuge, a place to find comfort. Since man was of earth, shelter had been his ultimate necessity, in the caverns and under rocks. He was safe and he was familiar, away from the dangers of the unknown. And if his home was to be compromised, a new home was to be found, with hopes of a similar promise. Now, thousands of years later, we find ourselves searching for that same promise, a constant hum of nomads looking for a place to call our own, in pitched roofs and high-rises, in locked bedroom doors and soft plush blankets. There is a peace to be found. Over the last decade, Iraq has witnessed an incredible rise in the number of
environment are lost. Upon discovering future master plans for The University of Tennessee, specifically the continuation of a monotonous rhythm of desolate spaces along the Pedestrian Pathway/Mall in the form of semi-circular couplets. In its particularly mundane highway activity of simply getting from point A to point B, the site fails to realize its communal potential. The seemingly exclusive couplets on either side of the path repeat in array of wasted potential. These islands of loneliness are associated with pestering propaganda and decoration, leaving them under-utilized by the thousands of passerby. I seek to intervene this flow of self and create a realization by interjecting precise pieces of a progression, that highlight this misuse of space in a uncomfortable manor that breaks the existing stasis.
displaced orphans. Currently at under a million, most of these children, aged from birth to pre-teens, are left to fend for themselves in the nation’s war-ridden streets. As a result of the ongoing war on terror, as well as the current ISIS crisis, for this generation of the new millennium, conflict in their homeland, rubble in their backyards, and missiles in the sky have become their “normal.” I propose a city within a city. On the grounds of the ancient Garden of Eden lies a safe haven, a refuge site for the displaced. At the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the site is a catalyst for progress, for acceptance and for hope. Under low ceilings and the shade of palm trees, the child finds a hand to hold.
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ADVISORS: Scott Wall
Green Oak Project_Red Bird Bunkhouse
BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE
ADVISORS: Ted Shelton
JOHN BATTLE Green Oak Project_Red Bird Bunkhouse
ADVISORS: Ted Shelton
The Green Oak design project explores ways of using an underutilized byproduct of hardwood industry as a new efficient building material. White Oak “cants” are the center cut of the milled log but it is usually sold “Green” because it is in a un-dried state that has limits as a typical lumber product. Since it’s a low grade product with a short life, it is currently used as shipping pallets.Tthese cants are minimally processed therefor they can be used as low cost building material. But at the moment there is not much knowledge about this type of construction material. This research studio has investigated ways of testing the structural capacity, dimensional movements and weathering aspects as an exterior skin. With these points in mind the project was driven to design a visitor space that
I have had the privilege of doing both student and professional work in Haiti, Appalachia, and throughout Tennessee over the past five years, researching and designing for different community engagement projects. Through this work and my experiences, I have expanded my perceived definition of sustainable design to surpass merely cutting down on energy use and savings to include how buildings can foster a lasting relationship with the community in which it serves. Specifically, working with the UT Appalachia Community Heath and Disaster Readiness Project in Clay County, KY has revitalized my passion for architecture as a means to affect communities and people through design. This semester, a group of students and I have been researching, designing and
houses sleeping space, bathrooms, showers and a communal space. The design project has taken on the “Building Living Challenge” as a way to ensure the project meets all of the certifications in order to be considered one of the most “Greenest” buildings in the U.S
building with Green Oak in Clay County in conjunction with Red Bird Mission. Green Oak, as a building material, is generally underused and misunderstood. As a sustainable building practice, using green oak is highly efficient in terms of cost and energy usage. A big part of our research has been how to incorporate our final product into the community in Clay County as well as into building practices throughout the region. It is our goal to provide Red Bird with a well-designed bunkhouse but also a sustainable teaching tool that can be implemented elsewhere in the future.
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JEAN PAUL BARON
Old Woolen Mill; Cleveland, TN
BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE
ADVISORS: Tricia Stuth
DYLAN BUC Green Oak Project_Red Bird Bunkhouse
ADVISORS: Ted Shelton
A building is a mirror of who we are and will be. During its life, the Hardwick Woolen Mill, evolves and speaks and communicates daily with the community. It shows its past through the exposed structure and the outer exterior. It isn’t a monument to the past, but it is something resting and dreaming only to be loved and used once again for present day and future endeavors of what we see fit. Cleveland, TN has been growing exponentially recently. They are a leader in small-town ingenuity with a strong work/life balance. New jobs are arising creating the need for new schools and more housing. New growth means new opportunities for the city of Cleveland. Cleveland like any other city is experiencing urban sprawl and introducing a new type of housing to Cleveland I believe would
Ridges to River looks at two existing roads that cut through the striation of the ridges that characterize east Tennessee, one of which being Broadway. The Broadway Corridor was an historic corridor, gaining prominence with the streetcar. Now a blighted area with low density, our studio sought to increase the density through different infill strategies. Within the corridor, the Fourth and Gill neighborhood brought about different issues. As an historic neighborhood, infill strategies would need to be considered in a thoughtful and sensitive manner. I sought to increase the density by filling in plots of land, some of which could fit two or more additional homes. The new homes are either duplexes or other multifamily housing, while the majority of the
increase the density of downtown and allow people to move from the suburbs into the city. This new housing type would be CoHousing. CoHousing is a type of collaborative housing where residents live together as a community. CoHosuing provides the privacy we are accustomed to with the community we seek. The most significant difference between CoHousing from other forms of multifamily housing is the social coherence of the common house and common spaces that link to the private dwelling units. This proposal seeks to create a citizen-focused community that values education, mutual respect of racial and cultural diversity and economic growth, without destroying its historical heritage or natural environment of the Hardwick Woolen Mill. It wants to activate the Hardwick Mill site as well as connecting to the downtown and the greenway.
existing neighborhood is single family housing. This mode of densification would ideally lead to additional ventures, and show that it is indeed possible to honor historic neighborhoods without gentrifying the area.
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CAITLIN BRAINERD
BAILEY COMER
MARIANELA D’APRILE
Green Oak Project_Red Bird Bunkhouse
ADVISORS: Scott Wall
This project was a compilation of more than just this semester. The Green Oak initiative started in the Fall of 2013. Many phases have led to this semester’s hard work and what we’ve been challenged with is designing a bunkhouse using green oak as a structural system on Red Bird Mission’s campus. It was a group project with work combined from previous semester’s time and this semester having two classes research into it; a seminar class and our studio. Red Bird Mission is located in Clay county Kentucky and is doing a great deal of work to reach out to the surrounding area’s families by providing help in any way possible. One of the programs they run is a work camp in which people from all over the country come to Red Bird and work on someone’s home for a week doing repairs, and other
This project seeks to address the elements that mediate the perception of the city by its users. The program is two-fold and manifests itself in two separate sites in the city of Buenos Aires, neither of which are currently used as they were designed to. One site, located in an impoverished area of the city, houses the program of an independent broadcasting center. Placed between a school and a surveillance center, its elements allow for traditional broadcasting elements while remaining flexible for independent user programming. The life of the site, everchanging and mutating, is recorded and broadcast on a facade in the center of the city, at the crux of two of its main avenues. This flattening of two disparate images of the city into one distorts and challengers inhabitants’ perceptions of
odds and ends. When the people come to Red Bird, they stay on the campus in bunkhouses. This is where we came into play. After talking with different members working for Red Bird, we decided to design a bunk to sleep eight people. Another challenge we gave ourselves, was to design for the Living Building Challenge.
their own city.
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BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE
ADVISORS: Ted Shelton
Beardsley Community Farm
ADVISORS: Tricia Stuth
ADVISORS: Robert French
Dye House: business party
BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE
ZANE ESPINOSA
Old Woolen Mill; Cleveland, TN
We begin our proposal in downtown Cleveland, a small but growing town in southeast Tennessee. Hardwick Clothing, a Cleveland based company that had roots in the downtown community since the late 1800s, abandoned their downtown Woolen Mill factory in the late 1970s. The mill sat empty for nearly two decades until purchased in the late 1990s by a developer. This is where we begin our intervention. Backed by the Old Woolen Mill developer, the City of Cleveland, and the Smart Community Initiative Grant, our studio [along with many other classes] began to rethink the city of Cleveland, more intently for our studio: the Old Woolen Mill site as a catalyst for downtown redevelopment. As of spring 2015, the Old Woolen Mill houses a handful of apartments, a ballet
“C.A.C Beardsley Community Farm is an urban demonstration site that has promoted food security and sustainable urban agriculture through practice, education, and community outreach since 1998. They exist to educate people of all ages about the possibilities and methods of organic and sustainable urban gardening. They give support and tools to community members to help them grow their own food, and teach about financial and environmental benefits of home food production, and provide fresh produce to people in need. Continuing off of the Fall Semester of the Beardsley Community Farm project, the Spring Studio’s focus was to start the construction aspect of the Farm Shelter and explore the construction techniques that will be used to build it. Our studies have
studio, photography studio, and a small event center on the north end of the 80,000 square foot facility, with the rest in various stages of clean-up or small construction projects. Our project specifically, re-imagines the current event center, moving its location to the more secluded southern end of the site. We believe that the new events space can bring the energy, community involvement, and raw facilities necessary to draw the community back into downtown Cleveland, bringing the funds and enthusiasm to transform the Woolen Mill site as well as the downtown at large into a bustling urban center again. In the presentation that follows, we seek to showcase the transformation that this project could have on its community, providing opportunity for all of the varying demographics within the city to intermingle and enjoy. While respecting the history and iconicism of the site, we re-imagine what the site can be: thoroughly engaging its surroundings, providing a variety of interesting spaces for all social classes to enjoy, and ultimately beginning the process for a city to rebuild its downtown upon.
been primarily focused on the characteristics and application of brick and masonry. The technical counterpart of design is just as critical as the conceptual process and both collaborate to bring our design into fruition. Working on construction documents and referencing the work from the Fall Semester, each student in the studio was specified to work on a particular area of the Farm Shelter. Our group of seniors (Demetrius, Ethan, Justin, Michael and Zane) collaborated with the other students in various design teams to execute consistency across the board graphically, physically, and aesthetically.in addition to pursuing perfection in drawn details, our class explored the techniques and applications of masonry. Our masonry instructor, JC Newman, provided us with professional experience and methodology which allowed us to learn and prepare for the eventual construction of the foundations and walls of the project.
BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE
JAROD DOTSON
EMMA GILL
ALISHA GOTHAM Market Hall + Culinary Institute
ADVISORS: Katherine Ambroziak
Ritual happens when a pause happens. The site chosen in Damascus, Virginia is a junction for four main hiking and biking trails. A bar and bike repair shop are designed along this junction in order to slow the traveler and create a break along their prescribed path. It is a moment in their journey where they can stop, reflect and take a moment to appreciate the landscape. It is a place where the traveler has the opportunity to become a part of the local community and share stories with other travelers.
ADVISORS: Hansörg Göritz
Downtown Knoxville is a “food desert” — it is not within close access of a grocery store. This collaborative project seeks to remedy that with a program requiring a Market Hall, Culinary School, and underground parking. The design contains specialty shops on the ground floor and culinary school functions above. The park to the east is an important connection to the very busy Gay Street that runs parallel to Market Square. The plaza to the west is the direct connection to Market Square and useful for the weekly farmers’ market activities. This area is lacking in that it does not take full advantage of the connections that are possible.
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BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE
In solving the design problem, the building and accompanying plaza become a visual and functional continuation of the existing Market Square axis. The Market Hall location is seen as an important connector between these main parts of downtown Knoxville. It is a place of community and brings people together. The primary structural system of the design consists of two steel diagrid tubes that are braced together and bolted to the concrete substructure. It allows for an open floor plan, central circulation core, permeability, and is visually enticing.
Beardsley Community Farm
BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE
ADVISORS: Robert French
HOLLY HARRIS Chicago O’Hare International Airport
ADVISORS: Scott Wall
“C.A.C Beardsley Community Farm is an urban demonstration site that has promoted food security and sustainable urban agriculture through practice, education, and community outreach since 1998. They exist to educate people of all ages about the possibilities and methods of organic and sustainable urban gardening. They give support and tools to community members to help them grow their own food, and teach about financial and environmental benefits of home food production, and provide fresh produce to people in need. Continuing off of the Fall Semester of the Beardsley Community Farm project, the Spring Studio’s focus was to start the construction aspect of the Farm Shelter and explore the construction techniques that will be used to build it. Our studies have
From a very young age my father surrounded me with airplanes. His hobby as a private pilot was to take me above the horizon. Many times he would let me take control of the plane. But too small to see over the windshield I did my best to balance the plane on the instrumental horizon so that neither wing tipped too much into the sky. Never fully understanding the mechanics of an airplane or how a machine so vast could be suspended in mid air, I grew an obsession with the mystery of flight. This desire lead me to seek an architectural thesis that dealt with flight and how others experience aircraft. I analyzed current terminal conditions and came to the conclusion that for other flight is experienced in a state of anxiety...waiting to be somewhere you’re not. I initially looked at the above ground
been primarily focused on the characteristics and application of brick and masonry. The technical counterpart of design is just as critical as the conceptual process and both collaborate to bring our design into fruition. Working on construction documents and referencing the work from the Fall Semester, each student in the studio was specified to work on a particular area of the Farm Shelter. Our group of seniors (Demetrius, Ethan, Justin, Michael and Zane) collaborated with the other students in various design teams to execute consistency across the board graphically, physically, and aesthetically.in addition to pursuing perfection in drawn details, our class explored the techniques and applications of masonry. Our masonry instructor, JC Newman, provided us with professional experience and methodology which allowed us to learn and prepare for the eventual construction of the foundations and walls of the project.
concourse and how it could formally interpret what used to be the hangar-depot. But I soon found myself inverting program underground, creating the anti-thesis of today’s modern terminal. Like in the cockpit as a young child the horizon becomes a mystery. Being suspended in space below the horizon creates opportunity for new exceptional experiences. An incubator for exchange, this inversion places passengers and non-passengers into a time capsule where the horizon is only a memory when you get a glimpse of the aircraft taxing above. This is for you Papa Joe.
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ETHAN GRIFFIN
Red Bird Mission Bunk House
ADVISORS: Ted Shelton
Continuing the research from previous semesters and a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency, this project is focused on developing the currently underutilized heart-center of logs as a structural building material. These oak heart centers are low cost, low energy, and carbon friendly due to their “green” state, meaning that they haven’t been kiln dried or chemically treated. Currently, the common use of this leftover green oak is for manufactured shipping pallets. The challenge of building with green oak material is that as it continues to naturally dry out over the first couple of years, it will begin to change shape. In this studio, we are designing building connections that allow for this shrinkage, while also allowing the green oak to be exposed to air and fully dry out. We are testing
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these building strategies through a design-build project at Red Bird Mission in Clay County, Kentucky, which was rated in the New York Times as the most difficult place to live in the US. The project is an eight-person bunkhouse for the mission’s work campers to stay when volunteering in the area. With the majority of us interested in making a highly sustainable design, the project got taken a step further with the goal of becoming Living Building Certified, which is the highest measure of sustainability recognition available today. Now that the design and construction documents are complete, we will pass our work on for following studios to begin breaking ground and to see the project out to completion.
TAYLOR HEIM A Stitch in the Urban Fringe
ADVISORS: Scott Wall
In a culture of accelerated living, architecture can restore a sense of community by creating a place for pause. Since the end of World War II, the trend of the “American Dream” has been to settle as far as the automobile will take us. This lifestyle has led to the destruction of land and a lost sense of place. The interstate has become the direct path to this suburbanization, ripping over rural communities standing in its way. The city of Nashville has been negatively affected by these settlement patterns. Six interstate legs now converge within its boundaries. They have stretched growth in every direction except towards Northwest Davidson County. The rural community of Joelton is the furthest community at the northwest edge of the city. This specific place has become the driving force behind my research. The intent of this proposal is to slow visitors down, transitioning attention away from the highway and into the heart of the rural community. While driving on the interstate our perception is lost to the speed and repetition. The monotony of the highway makes us numb to our surroundings, giving us an incomplete understanding of where we are. I intend to create a series of changing velocities transitioning from the speed of the highway into the rural town of Joelton. Introducing visual stimuli will lead the traveler into the heart of the town. The velocities of the traveler and the resident will interlock at a pause in the form of a produce market for the Joelton community. This will create an opportunity to highlight the cultural value of the rural area which a traveler typically overpasses. Simultaneously, community members will experience a similar discovery, causing them to re-evaluate their surroundings, instilling pride back into the community.
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MELISSA HATCHETT
Old Woolen Mill; Cleveland, TN
ADVISORS: Tricia Stuth
The Unseen Site The span of a century has created a place in time estranged by its original use. Leaving behind a material form of massive proportions in the physical realm it sets up the framework for a timeline so intricate it is almost incomprehensible. Through its stillness and silence the Old Woolen Mill perpetuates a sense of curiosity for the happenings of the past. Little mysteries are unveiled traversing through the complex while others are heightened, appearing anomalous to their surroundings. What remains becomes better understood by close examination of the site conditions and latent history, indicating above all others a shift in
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necessity, time, and technology.
CHLOE LANE Slowness
ADVISORS: Scott Wall
Our lives and culture are overwhelmingly defined by speed and ultimately a lack of memory. Interstates, suburban sprawl and fast food chains are all symptoms of speed that pervade the landscape. How can architecture begin to combat this and make slowness as prevalent and desired as speed? By working within a context of different time based processes, my thesis seeks to answer this question. Through the use of ideas of procession and slowness, extending the journey to prolong anticipation, it will create an architecture that exists in its own time line, a gradual threshold from forgetting to memory. Programmatically, it consists of a brewery, a bakery and a coffee shop, each a process oriented means of leisure. It is a space for makers and those who work to create moments that make life worth living. From the growth of the barley or wheat to the first sip of crema, each part of the process will become a part of the architecture and experience. The idea of slowness will not stop at the borders of the site, however, as part of the slowness will be the journey there. By breaking the idea of the journey down into tangible frames and moments it will extend the experience causing those who use it to become aware that they are part of a continuum of time, past, present and future.
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PAIGE JESSOP
JEFFERY LOWERY
WANQI (K.K.) LOY The Cabinets of Found Fiction
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Damascus is a small friendly community of 815 individuals. It’s a town where everyone knows everyone and they love meeting new people that come through. A barbershop offers a venue not only for meeting and interacting with visitors, but swapping stories of the trail, other parts of the country, and the community itself. A good barber creates a strong rapport with clients, becoming a facilitator of this dialogue and interaction. This design offers communal interaction at every opportunity, even those programmatic elements like the showers and baths that are often isolated and segregated, become moments of interaction while maintaining a level of comfortable modesty. Transformation is the core value of a barbershop. We enter a barbershop unshaven, unkempt and burdened by the weight of time since our last visit, but leave after experiencing a ritualistic cleansing that frees us from the passage of time symbolized by the growth of our hair, composed by our trusted aesthetic designer, and confident in our appearance and level of civility that the experience has brought us. In this design, thresholds are very important to the symbolic and experiential nature of transformation. When we enter one space from another, we are greeted by a different stage of cleansing that frees us from different layers of our burden. We are first freed of our physical burdens, our bikes, backpacks, or whatever possessions we may carry. We then shed our soiled clothes before showering off all of the filth of our travels. Afterwards, whether we decide to enjoy the sauna, pool, hot tub, or baths, we are releasing the extra dirt in our pores, relaxing our weary bodies, and becoming new. All of this transformation occurs even before we undergo the final stage of rejuvenation of having our hair cut.
ADVISORS: Katherine Ambroziak
A space for reclaimed literature Found objects are the artifacts that bring ritual value to this project. The program is a used bookstore. The space contains three “cabinets” to hold books, connected with a community space, a cafe, and a bar of transition space that overlooks the French Broad River. Since the project revolves around the value of a lost object and the act of its being found, the River Arts District in Asheville, NC is the chosen [Found] site for the program. Based on the condition of the chosen area, the primary concept is to fill in gaps with knowledge by reclaiming literature. The project introduces a nonrhythmic layering system that responds to the site surrounding and the history of River Art District. The site contains a 30 foot drop which allows the building to pierce into the earth similar to a free standing object. The building is pulled away from the sidewalk to maintain the hidden + searching characteristic of a found object, and one approaches the building by walking across a twenty five foot long bridge, and enters into the community space encompassed by two walls of books The Used Bookstore is created to celebrate the ritual value of reclaimed literature through an understanding of self and the collective. It also introduces a new chapter for River Art Dis-trict to branch out its existence beyond the scope of its current use.
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ADVISORS: Katherine Ambroziak
Mega-Ville Platforms
ADVISORS: Keith Kaseman
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This independent study was an opportunity to expand my design process as well as my imagination. The focus of the study was to investigate new architectural urban typologies through multiple urban methods. It was a studio driven by questions, iterations, and a conscious decision to look at situations through new lenses. Using a parametric program such as grasshopper, I was able to generate a series of notational mappings that could be used to think about new spatial conditions. This led to the Mega-Ville Platform. Can we use pre-charged platforms to infect cities with new spatial opportunities? Can we use the concept of platform to make new threads in the urban fabric? Take away the idea of programming a space and replace it with platforming and what new opportunities emerge?
GARRETT NELLI Red Bird Mission Bunk House
ADVISORS: Ted Shelton
Architecture has the power to strengthen community bonds, support a healthy life style and enrich individual lives. The Red Bird Water Kiosk seeks to achieve all three of these on the site of the Red Bird Mission campus, located deep in the Appalachian Mountains of Clay County, Kentucky. This is an area where most live below the poverty line, and about 64 percent of water sources are contaminated. As a result, lack of clean water has forced many locals to turn to unhealthy living standards. Because of these conditions, the county ranks as one of the poorest in the nation, as well as being near the bottom in major health indicators. The Water Kiosk will provide municipal water to over 9000 local inhabitants of the area who currently do not have access to clean water. Red Bird Mission, The University of Tennessee Colleges of Architecture and Design, Engineering and Nursing are collaborating to remedy many of the health issues that are prevalent in Clay County through a three year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to these coordinated education efforts, the Water Kiosk will be the first design - build intervention. It will also provide a new home for the local farmers’ market to support local businesses and serve the social aspects of a “watering hole”. This project showcases the powerful impact the students, faculty and staff of the University of Tennessee can have on our neighboring communities through collaboration of multiple disciplines.
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ZACHARY MULITAUAOPELE
JENNIFER NGUYEN
KYLE NICHOLS
Submerged
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600 years from present day: 18:15 local time, sunset in Vietnam About 100 feet from what used to be the dry slums, he stands with his bare feet pressed against the rusting barge. With hands rushing to harvest the new grown rice, he tips his sunhat lower as drops of sweat became lost in the rainstorm. He licked his dry lips as his tongue craved for sake’s sweet taste left behind from the night before. He was eager for an evening in the drinking well with his old friends again. Being close in physical proximity of others then, it was these nights that he likes to stand afar from activity - watching, observing, and becoming lost in not loneliness but rather singular introspection and solitude. Simultaneously far in the distance, the last array of sunlight vanished beyond and immediately it was replaced with a line of twinkling red light. His eyes lift. The monsoon festival is starting. It is year 2615 and what used to be Hue’s soft shore is now the dappled specks of industrial barges blanketed with rice paddies. This thesis investigates adaptation to the dark sea and the new lifestyle in which one must embark to navigate the flooded remnants left behind from the past. It is a curation of the most efficient way to live with sea level rising and limited resources. It is a study of living in a city underwater.
ADVISORS: Katherine Ambroziak
Three elements: the fire station, the town hall, and the urban market come together to create a civic gateway in the smalldown town of Damascus, VA. Bright red engines behind glass doors, hose tower reaching above the skyline, the fire station is a civic icon of safety, brotherhood,and strength. Inside, it is a house of ritual, each task being a very specific character, between duty and relaxation, all done within a brotherhood of peers. While many are concerned with the thousands of hikers that pass through during the year, the focus here is instead on the 800 inhabitants who play second to the visitor in their own town. This building shares the bond of the fire house among all who call this town home.
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ADVISORS: Scott Wall
Old Woolen Mill; Cleveland, TN
ADVISORS: Tricia Stuth
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Comfort. Community. Cleveland. Our project specifically, re-imagines the current event center, moving its location to the more secluded southern end of the site. We believe that the new events space can bring the energy, community involvement, and raw facilities necessary to draw the community back into downtown Cleveland, bringing the funds and enthusiasm to transform the Woolen Mill site as well as the downtown at large into a bustling urban center again. We seek to showcase the transformation that this project could have on its community, providing opportunity for all of the varying demographics within the city to intermingle and enjoy. The event spaces and programs are crafted to revive the traditions of fellowship, warmth and connect the cultural desire for ideas and interests ranging beyond the realm of an event.
MATTHEW RACTLIFFE The Unseen Site | Continuum
ADVISORS: Tricia Stuth
We are reinterpreting the idea of energy generation by using our building as a catalyst to breathe a new life into not only The Old Woolen Mill, but also downtown Cleveland, TN. In doing this, we are focusing on the idea of a timeless space that any number of programs may be inserted into, and how that transcends scale from the site to found objects. Just as our client is introducing new programs into this old mill, we are treating the former powerhouse structure as a microcosm of the mill in its entirety. In dealing with a real Client, we have been given new opportunities and parameters that influenced design decisions. These decisions related to the client’s hands on approach – a do it yourself philosophy and resourcefulness with objects of the mill.
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CHRISTINA OWENS
Permitting Memory
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ADVISORS: Scott Wall
JUSTIN RELYEA Beardsley Farm Project
ADVISORS: Robert French
This project has been a process study of the temporary architectural phenomenon. Through a series of investigations, beginning with a case study of the Olympics, and ultimately a closer look at the implications created from this image, my project looks to address a particular set of memories produced by an instance of overlapping spectacle. The first, the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, and less than a decade later, violent civil war resulting in the dissolution of former Yugoslavia. From this image, and knowledge of the site, temporary becomes spectacle, becomes memory, becomes permitted activity. The people of Sarajevo have acknowledged what has happened here, but choose not to dwell on the past. The site exists as its own archive. For my proposal, it is
The Beardsley Farm project taught me a few things that had slipped my mind during my five years in this college. For years the only thing that mattered was pressing the theoretical edge of design on paper and in my own head. I went from spending hours and hours bouncing from program to program and sketch to sketch trying to come up with some wondrous and flashy design to spending hours drawing roof details for a project I had never seen before; the same roof details for the entire semester actually. In the blink of an eye, architecture became a job, not a passion. Architecture died for me. I was no longer concerned with creating drawn beauty or crafting logic with empathy and poetry at the forefront. I was only concerned with
necessary to acknowledge what is happening, separate from what has occurred before, and allow new memories to be made. Just as this site has dictated what particular events have and may possibly occur, history and new activity permit further program. A hostel fits here as a means to encourage natural re-inhabitation while allowing the visitor to determine what they may experience without formal suggestion. IN essence, it allows history and memory, simply, to continue. As permitted, program becomes a place to gather, a space to meet, a room to recover and reflect.
doing my part and nothing more. I would do my work, check with my leaders…and then go home. All I could see was a future full of monotony and uninspiring offices where the only reprieve would be a paycheck at the end of the day. Only in the later stages did it occur to me that architecture wasn’t the pursuit of some great built poetry or egotistical monument to what you consider “great design”, but rather the realization of an idea into built reality. I convinced myself that this wasn’t design, when in fact it was a far more realistic design than we’re used to. I waited to be motivated instead of trying to achieve a great project. I had let my ego and anger hold me and, by extension, the project down. If I have learned any one thing from this project…it’s that it takes time, patience, expertise and a professionalism that I didn’t yet possess to move from sketches and coffee house discussions to the simplest of constructs, let alone a community farm. Honestly, this project, this studio, this last semester, has taught me to finally grow up.
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CODY RAU
Beardsley Farm Project
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ADVISORS: Robert French
DEMETRIUS SMITH Beardsley Farm Project
ADVISORS: Robert French
“C.A.C Beardsley Community Farm is an urban demonstration site that has promoted food security and sustainable urban agriculture through practice, education, and community outreach since 1998. They exist to educate people of all ages about the possibilities and methods of organic and sustainable urban gardening. They give support and tools to community members to help them grow their own food, and teach about financial and environmental benefits of home food production, and provide fresh produce to people in need. Continuing off of the Fall Semester of the Beardsley Community Farm project, the Spring Studio’s focus was to start the construction aspect of the Farm Shelter and explore the construction techniques that will be used to build it.
“C.A.C Beardsley Community Farm is an urban demonstration site that has promoted food security and sustainable urban agriculture through practice, education, and community outreach since 1998. They exist to educate people of all ages about the possibilities and methods of organic and sustainable urban gardening. They give support and tools to community members to help them grow their own food, and teach about financial and environmental benefits of home food production, and provide fresh produce to people in need. Continuing off of the Fall Semester of the Beardsley Community Farm project, the Spring Studio’s focus was to start the construction aspect of the Farm Shelter and explore the construction techniques that will be used to build it. Our studies have
Our studies have been primarily focused on the characteristics and application of brick and masonry. The technical counterpart of design is just as critical as the conceptual process and both collaborate to bring our design into fruition. Working on construction documents and referencing the work from the Fall Semester, each student in the studio was specified to work on a particular area of the Farm Shelter. Our group of seniors (Demetrius, Ethan, Justin, Michael and Zane) collaborated with the other students in various design teams to execute consistency across the board graphically, physically, and aesthetically.in addition to pursuing perfection in drawn details, our class explored the techniques and applications of masonry. Our masonry instructor, JC Newman, provided us with professional experience and methodology which allowed us to learn and prepare for the eventual construction of the foundations and walls of the project.
been primarily focused on the characteristics and application of brick and masonry. The technical counterpart of design is just as critical as the conceptual process and both collaborate to bring our design into fruition. Working on construction documents and referencing the work from the Fall Semester, each student in the studio was specified to work on a particular area of the Farm Shelter. Our group of seniors (Demetrius, Ethan, Justin, Michael and Zane) collaborated with the other students in various design teams to execute consistency across the board graphically, physically, and aesthetically.in addition to pursuing perfection in drawn details, our class explored the techniques and applications of masonry. Our masonry instructor, JC Newman, provided us with professional experience and methodology which allowed us to learn and prepare for the eventual construction of the foundations and walls of the project.
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MICHAEL SENA
LEWIS WILLIAMS
ADVISORS: Scott Wall
With the Bakken oil boom beginning in Williston in 2007, the town of Epping, located 20 miles away with a population of 80 residents, was first exempt from the wild nature of the boom. However in 2012, Crestwood Midstream Partners’ oil loading facility was built in Epping with the intention of moving 1/6th of North Dakota’s oil out of the state to refineries. This facility is the terminal destination for oil trucks and the town has since become a magnet for traffic all over the region. This thesis explores the construct of a new boomtown typology and attempts to answer questions of how we can build immediate cities which are perpetually at risk of imminent collapse and will ultimately cease to exist. The railroad defines the logic for a new town typology in which building program can be shipped,
HUNTER YOUNG
ADVISORS: Katherine Ambroziak
This post office in Damascus, VA is located at mile marker 463 along the Appalachian Trail. Centered around the rituals of a found object, the anticipation of a package, and the communal aspect of coming together, the building was designed to house packages and mail for the AT hikers and the surrounding community. Because Damascus is a “trail town” surviving off the income from the hikers, the building was intended as a place for the community to give back to the hikers. This hiker oasis is meant to be a place to serve all the hikers’ needs. AT hikers typically travel in the spring and summer; when the community would be most active at the pavilion. These connected programs and unconventional spaces are meant to aid in the reinterpretation of the typology of a post office.
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docked, and integrated into an existing town structure. Everything from a market to a theater can travel by rail and housing can be delivered on a scale which is unattainable by any other means of transport. Consequentially, when the boom collapses, the town itself can migrate along the rail to serve other areas and not burden these places with an endless array of abandoned structures. This mobile architecture has the potential to reach beyond the boomtown and serve as aid for disaster relief and situations of immediate architectural urgency.
HALEY ZIMMERMAN The Unseen Site | Continuum
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” -Eleanor Roosevelt One hundred years of memories are etched on the walls of an old woolen mill. One can feel the energy there once was when walking between brick walls and railroad trestles, seeing graffiti juxtaposed with intricately crafted doors, and gazing up at the towering smokestack. The place, designed to make, is inhabited once more for that act. The goal of the class was to create an adaptive reuse project through exploration, documentation, and design. By a collaborative effort, the Hardwick Woolen Mill in Cleveland, TN, was measured, drawn, and transformed using cues from the past and present, the seen and unseen site. Each student, or team of students, then took on a piece of the mill to further design. Located in the heart of the site, adjacent to the monumental smokestack, is a unique space, previously the power house for the entire mill. Since the essence of the space is making – power generation – the space is designed in such a way that the inhabitants can use it as a place for production on various scales. Due to the nature of transformation and generation, the space is designed to be flexible for different inhabitants over time. Transformative interventions, including permanent and temporary installations, cater to a multitude of programs. Some of which explored were a brewery, theater, sculpture studio, book shop/printing, and micro production facility. The idea is to keep spatial interventions to a minimum, to allow for maximum flexibility. This, in turn, allows inhabitants over the next hundred years to transform the space with the objects they bring in, as opposed to the space defining what type of program can exist there.
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ADVISORS: Tricia Stuth
eric archer catherine felton laura flores rijad heldic geneva hill madeline jones whitney manahan christopher owens thomas peterson ryan stechmann kathryn taylor steven whitmore II jared wilkins jacob wimsatt
The Graduate Architecture Program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, encourages students to make meaningful impacts to the world through research, design and scholarly work. Distinguished for its project-based education and research, the program has pushed its students to pursue multi-disciplinary learning that re-invents conventional design/build operations and explores innovative uses of sustainable methods in the built environment. As the only professionally-accredited graduate architecture program in the state, it has become a leading force in pushing forward research in areas of urban design, sustainability, high-performance buildings and conservation and stewardship.
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MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE
Architecture | Graduate
ERIC ARCHER
WHITNEY MANAHAN
I am investigating the potential for a mixed use community located on the chosen site of the Chicago 2016 Candidate Proposal Olympic Village located on the near south side, primarily in a medium-density low to moderate income residential neighborhood named Prairie Shores. This site is isolated from other neighborhoods and amenities by existing transportation networks that dissect the neighborhood, yet it has the opportunity to become a vibrant and interconnected city center. The primary housing typology that exists in the is the ‘tower in the park’ - single-use high-rise residential structures placed on a superblock of green landscaping typically abutting arteries of car traffic. The original intention was to create order within the city and provide plenty of landscaping and urban space for
The typical cycle of industrial use, disuse, and abandonment is no longer acceptable or feasible. This thesis investigates phased remediation and conversion of petrochemical structures and their respective sites with the intention of increasing both the socioeconomic vitality and environmental quality of the area. The oil silo is an intriguing object and industrial artifact. Being close to one of these massive structures is captivating and there is something truly exciting and thought provoking about inhabiting a space that was clearly not meant for humans. These are qualities that provide opportunities to connect people with a site and create a place with substance in a way that is unique, thoughtful and
the city’s occupants. Noble in goals, the concept has been chastised for its lack of character, inappropriate scale, and the inability to create vibrant public space that promote interaction and community. These monofunctional mega towers create an over concentration of segregated nodes without adequate or engaging connections for the public. Without variety and appropriate density, functional connections cannot form which leads to segregation. With this segregative zoning typology being prominent in the surrounding areas, it is imperative that appropriate and well-designed public space and programmatically diverse architecture be implemented to create a new ‘zone of centrality’ for Chicago’s south side, reconnecting the neighborhood to surrounding areas including the waterfront.
long lasting. Millions of these structures exist throughout the world, creating the opportunity for a new typology of adaptive reuse. Society is currently operating within a pivotal moment in time. There is a global increase of awareness and understanding when it comes to the limited resources available on this planet. Topics such as renewable resources, peak oil, and climate change continue to be key aspects of the global conversation. Reducing consumption, waste, and pollution are of the utmost importance in considering the future of our world. Petrochemical structures around the world may become obsolete in coming years due to the decline in oil dependence and the reuse of these structures will save tons of material from ending up in landfills. This thesis posits that the spectacle of industrial infrastructure is a catalyst for repurposing and remediating underutilized lands, and that the process of repurposing and remediation presents powerful opportunities for place-making.
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FORGOTTEN INFRASTRUCTURE: The Future of the Industrial Mundane
CHRISTOPHER OWENS Coexisting with the Penumbra: Inviting the homeless to participate in design
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MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE
Population growth and cars have caused cities to sprawl from their downtown cores, resulting in a landscape of low density building. Far too often the empty lot at the edge of the city or along a highway attracts the next opportunity for development, furthering the gap between residential and commercial zones. The profession of architecture recognizes that urban site selection and mixeduse programming is vital to the social and financial health of a city, though it typically only participates in the design of the building. However, the visionary training and practice of architecture places the architect in a unique position to initiate successful projects on sites that are undervalued. This suggests that the architect’s role in the development process should be expanded in order to participate in programming and site selection. This expanded role will lead to more frequent and better quality urban development which is supported by financial incentives to cities, their neighborhoods, and the profession of architecture.
william lezon jessica taylor brandon orrick cameron rodman caroline sneed leah sullivan whitney tidd clint wayman
An interdisciplinary degree program offered through a partnership between the College of Architecture and Design and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Landscape Architecture Program delivers an education balanced across the applied arts and sciences. It is the first and only program in Tennessee accredited by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board. As a leader in addressing contemporary issues facing landscapes and communities of the state and region, the Landscape Architecture Program prepares its students to become experts, researchers and professionals of natural and constructed environments.
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MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Landscape Architecture | Graduate
WILLIAM LEZON
CAMERON RODMAN
There are 29 hydroelectric dams in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s catalog. These dams are beginning to crumble and fail due to the fact that they are almost 100 years old. Also, hydroelectric facilities generate only one-tenth of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s power revenue. With these facts it is easy to imagine a future scenario in which the costs outweigh the benefits of maintaining these facilities. If the 19 reservoirs associated with these dams were drained to their “pre-dam” level, it would leave the TVA service region with a staggering 470,000 acres of raw, undeveloped land. How does TVA re-appropriate so much land in a way that pacifies landowners adjacent to the existing reservoir, while also adding resiliency as an infrastructure at multiple scales along the Tennessee
Traditionally landscapes have been interpreted and read as something to act upon. Topography has been shaped subserviently to create room for programmatic elements. Over the past few decades, landscapes and topography, are becoming seen as something which can create change in communities. Topo-graft challenges common approaches of thinking and creating of landscapes by using topography as a driving force for change. Landscape is viewed as something living and ever changing which when constructed in specific forms and through certain methods generates change in the landscape. The constant change by naturally occurring dynamic forces (weather, succession, etc.) and humankind prove the notion that landscapes and their topographies are
River watershed? By utilizing the concepts of habitat connectivity and flood control, I designed a strategic plan that TVA can implement post dam removal in order to build resiliency into their infrastructure. By focusing on the prototypical condition of Boone Lake in the Tri-Cities area, I recognized 6 distinct stakeholders, people who own: undeveloped land, agricultural and livestock land, waterfront residential property, large-lot residential property, and industrial property. I created option packages for each of these stakeholders that would enable them to choose from several amenities. By utilizing parametric parameters, I tried to begin to predict how these options would play out on the ground. In so doing, I was trying to predict and test the resiliency of my option packages. Again, the point of this project was to create a strategic plan for TVA that would build resiliency into their infrastructure, at multiple scales, in post-dam reservoir land.
living places. This living tissue is something which can be stretched, bent, and removed and reconstructed (grafted). The many pieces of the landscape (place) are interrelated regardless of the number of times which they are removed and replaced. There is a history contained in the soil, the landscape, the topos.
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
topo-graft
CAROLINE SNEED
LEAH SULLIVAN
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress established the Tennessee Valley Authority as a part of the New Deal strategy. The TVA is the nation’s largest public power provider and has become a staple in local infrastructure, culture, and economy. Our studio set up the TVA as a frame in order to research and understand the region at large. We have discovered the TVA to be a geographic region, an enterprise, a propaganda machine, a collection of infrastructure, and an important power structure integral to this area’s cultural history. We are questioning if and how the TVA remains a relevant entity in the future. This specific project takes a closer look at toxicity in the region – both generated
Currently, a vast majority of elementary aged children are nature deficient. They attend six to eight hours of school five days a week, have limited independent outdoor access due to safety and health concerns. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, explains, “Nature-deficient disorder describes human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.” This lack of experiences by children with nature causes them to use less brain coordination: conceptual, social, analytical, and structural. In addition, a natural environment may be improved by preserving green spaces around neighborhood settings, enhancing existing areas within a schoolyard, and preserving natural open
by the TVA and outside the TVA’s purview. How do we as a regional culture understand pollution and its impact on our daily lives? Could the TVA capitalize on pollution in the area and make it some form of spectacle? Could these spectacles become an attraction that people travel to in order to experience? Could this create not only a new form of tourism but also a new TVA initiative? Could this initiative not only serve didactic purposes, but could it also reverse or remediate the very spectacle that it capitalizes on?
spaces for directed learning experiences by children using the senses as a key to maintaining and improving health. According to the National Wildlife Federation, “American childhood’s move indoors profoundly impacts the health and wellness of kids. It is not just a sad loss of innocence: a detachment from all things growing and green. It is a serious public health issue.” While outdoors, students are physically energized, socialized, and relieved of mental stress. The health and social development of children may be improved by interaction with nature. Learning by children improves with hands-on experience with nature. The goal of this thesis is to suggest methods for increasing interaction of elementary school children with the natural environment on school grounds by designing ecological areas for green outdoor spaces and preserving, enhancing, and protecting natural existing areas to foster physically, mentally, and socially healthy students. A further goal is to identify, explore, and design a conceptual master plan for a prototype schoolyard for place-based education in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Addressing Nature Deficiency with Outdoor Classrooms
WHITNEY TIDD The Campaign for Urban Eco-Literacy: Communicating ecological principles in the urban landscape
ADVISORS: Brad Collett, Valerie Friedmann, Virginia Kupritz, Mike McKinney
development, adaptation, and evolutionary processes in the urban ecosystem. The campaign offers the audience multiple opportunities for engagement and interaction. An opening exhibit will generate excitement and familiarize people with the goals of the campaign and the principles of eco-literacy. A series of diverse installations reveal typically unseen elements of the urban ecosystem through visual and interactive tactics such as virtual reality, sculpture, moss graffiti, social media, augmented reality, and live video. The interventions will be woven together by both a mobile application and a trail through the city, promoting varied participation from the audience.
MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
“The Campaign for Urban Eco-Literacy� combines proven communication strategies with landscape architecture design principles to increase eco-literacy amongst the public. Several sites in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, act as the primary launching pad for the campaign, which consists of a series of virtual, spatial, and experiential interventions that appeal to a wide audience by utilizing a variety of communication techniques. Through the interventions I aim to increase public awareness of nature in cities, inspire appreciation of novel ecosystems, and encourage a feeling of connection between humans and nature. The campaign uses both proven and experimental communication techniques. Each element of the campaign intends to build awareness of complex ecological networks and the
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