Flowing Culture - Establishing a Connective Blueway Through Knoxville

Just downriver from the confluence of the French Broad and Holston Rivers, Knoxville, TN, is the trailhead community for the Tennessee RiverLine. Here, paddlers, boaters, and anglers, as well as hikers, bikers, and walkers experience a range of landscape conditions along the river ranging from urban and suburban development to seemingly remote agricultural and wildlife management lands. This proposal for Knoxville’s Blueway offers a heightened level of river access for diverse users but is about connecting area residents and visitors to far more than recreation opportunities.   

Flowing Culture’s kayak share pavilions act as anchor points along the Tennessee River around which new social events begin to take place, ecological habitats are restored, and environments focused on river etiquette and management begin to spiral out to affect the entire river, and Knoxville as a whole. The landscape at each pavilion is inspired by typical morphological conditions of the Tennessee River - delta, riffle, pool, backwater, embayment, plunge - engaging their defining characteristics as a muse for the performance of the proposed social program and habitat-enhanced infrastructure.  

UT River Studio 2017

Location: Knoxville, TN

Student: Rachel Helton

Faculty Advisor: Brad Collett