Cades Cove: Threshold

Being sited in a national park, like Cades Cove, the main focus was sustainability, and to free the park visitors of the vehicle they arrived in. Cades Cove has a very interesting phenomena right now, being a national park but mainly being experience looking through the windshield of a car, while sitting in the air conditioned interior. While this would not be an issue if one was experiencing this while driving to get to a trail head. This becomes an issue because Cades Cove is a one way loop, and what happens is people come to stop and see the bears, deer, and other wildlife that pass through the park by the road, causing cars to idle in the loop, releasing fumes and emissions into the natural environment.

This project is titled Threshold because it acts as a filter and dispersion system for the park patrons. As you approach, either on foot, bike, or car to the park you arrive on the green roof of the project, and as you get out of the car and move through the building. Sited in the 30 foot elevation change between the ground level of the entrance and where you exit the building and enter the park. As you move through it, you are given views and access out into nature.

The program of the building is held inside the large rammed earth walls which vary in size from 8 feet to 15 feet thick to support the load of the inhabitable green roof. Rammed earth was selected due to not only its ability to excel in compression, but also the sustainability of it, coming right from the ground excavated from the site, the building is literally made up from the site it sits in. For the roof, reinforced site cast concrete beams were used to help with the spans of the spaces.