Firefly Village: BioInspired Architecture for Healing

Firefly Village

Bio-inspired Architecture for Healing Smoky Mountains National Park

Team: Lauralee WIlliams and Liza DeAngelis

The Firefly Village is a fresh take on the expanded needs of the National Parks Visitor Centers. It is an homage to the living, it is a place that seeks to learn from nature and to embody and promote healing of people, plants, animals and all inhabitants of the land making up the nature to which we all belong and are responsible for protecting.

Inspired by the Smoky Mountains firefly display that draws visitors from far and wide, the Fireflies are a collection of lightweight, transformable buildings that expand and contract, responding to the needs and seasons, to provide shade, shelter, and connection between indoor and outdoor, unfurling their wings in pace with simultaneous natural phenomena occurring in the park. The Village is site specific to the Sugarland’s Visitor’s Center area, but we believe that it’s conceptual framework speaks to the essential needs of public engagement centers throughout the National Parks.

The goals of the Green New Deal help us to center and begin to address issues of Decarbonization, Jobs, and Justice in context. We add layers of our own: Play, Discovery, Retreat, and Engagement, drawn from research in existing trauma therapies.

Our strategies are applied in the architecture of each of seven (7) firefly buildings (Bug), two (2) retreat pavilions, an extensive Accessible loop and integrated programming,

Programming for Park Phenomena

Glimpse into one of 3 main Firefly buildings: the Adaptable Play Bug

Ascribed therapy framework and Architectural touchpoints

Play and fantasy : Play environments Sensation : Tactility and material variety Engagament : Memorial and narrative design

Responsible Material Use

The Fiberglass folding wings of each Bug are supported by charred reclaimed logs.

Locally sourced stone

WNC Smoky Mountain Land Management, Marshall, TN Reclaimed Wormy Chestnut

Barnwood Bricks: God’s Country, TN Charred reclaimed logs

Reclaimed Designworks: Nashville, TN Fiberglass Wings

Resolite: Moscow, TN

Transformable Design

Proposed buildings expand to meet park visitation needs in the summer and contract to minimize footprint in the off season. Walls and shading devices move mechanically by manual human operation, leading to lower operating costs and opportunities for employee training and community engagement.

Sustainable energy is created through renewable solar and rainwater collection systems.

Below: Trained park employees offer workshops in backcountry skills and promote environmental stewardship.

Like all of the buildings, the Orientation Bug’s walls fold and swing to expand orientation spaces in response to park visitation needs, adaptively minimizing each structure’s footprint and operating costs.

The Firefly Village lights up with activity as visitors, community members and staff interact with eachother, the architecture and the environment.