architecture + design
Projects
FICKLE PATH
Typology: Landscape Infrastructure
Location: Mead's Quarry, Knoxville, Tennessee
Course: ARCH 272 - Territory II Studio
Instructor: Tracy Moir-McClean
Semester: Fall 2023
Fickle Path adds a connecting piece to the high foot traffic park trails of Mead's Quarry, at Ijams Nature Center near Knoxville’s urban core. The trail bridge carefully considers the territorial boundaries between pollinators and park visitors by reclaiming scarred post-industrial space to preserve critical zones above and below the rockface.
Through the study of native vegetation zones and pollinator movement patterns, areas of sensitive ecological activity were identified and prioritized for preservation. These findings informed the redesign of a key connector within the park’s trail network. To reduce human impact within critical zones while maintaining familiar circulation paths and highlighting the quarry’s distinctive viewpoints, the project proposes a tensile bridge that clings to the quarry bowl’s rock face, linking lower and upper trail systems.
The site is currently characterized by dense kudzu growth along steep, terraced quarry walls formed by industrial extraction. The bridge’s structural logic draws inspiration from the taproots of these invasive vines, which aggressively anchor themselves into inhospitable terrain. By reinterpreting this strategy, the bridge acts as a deliberate parasitic intervention - one that replaces an ecologically harmful presence with an architectural element designed to facilitate mindful movement, protect sensitive habitats, and encourage more responsible engagement with this unique urban landscape.
