Appalachian Oasis

In East Tennessee, the threats of climate change are critically different than its coastal neighbors. As many of the coastal metropolitan areas in the Southeast United States are grappling with rising sea levels, the inner cities are experiencing threats of rising temperatures causing an increase in droughts and heat waves. In Chattanooga, Tennessee the surge in higher temperatures has positioned the city as the 6th fastest warming city in the U.S., just below its Southwest counterparts. While Chattanooga has taken a preventive approach with its urban policy to slow these effects the question remains how will the city respond to the lasting effects and remain a walkable city for its residents and visitors? Our research proposes a reactive approach through design to respond to these challenges.

Assessing the issues and hazards of climate change throughout the region allowed this research to determine the higher risks to focus on. Utilizing the framework of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit helped to identify hazards across the region and assessing vulnerability & risks of these hazards. During the assessment we found that in the case of increased heat threatening residents in Chattanooga, communities faced an increase of heat-related injuries and deaths. Furthermore, we found that underserved groups including minorities, low-income, and elderly are all at a higher vulnerability based on their dependency of public transportation and walking for mobility in their communities. In order to better address the needs and challenges of the community our research established key values that align with goals of the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan by Greenspaces which incorporated input from community members and leaders.

The (4) primary functions of The Appalachian Oasis are water harvesting and storage, solar collection and charging, mist cooling, shading and illuminated shelter. Each oasis is formulated by utilizing a ‘grass blade’ modular structural system which provides flexibility in functionality and spatial requirements. Once the layout of the structure is selected, a woven mesh is stretched between the structures to finalize the form and provide the essential functionality of providing shelter and shading from harsh sunlight, supplying a medium for water vapor and rainwater harvesting, or supporting PV panels for solar collection.

The future of Chattanooga’s climate continues to change, but the needs and experiences of its residents and visitors remain the same. Appalachian oasis could be integral to the urban fabric and support the future experiences and movement throughout the city.

Framework for Design Excellence

Design for Integration:
The Appalachian Oasis project was created through an internal research grant awarded to our team that lasted for a year. The overall goal for the research grant was to identify challenges and opportunities in our community or practice that could better inform the design and practices of others through research-based design solutions. Once our team identified the basis of our research it was important that we established our own goals that focused on making informed decisions that would not impede or neglect anyone that it may serve.
Our research started by assessing the issues and hazards of climate change throughout the region, focusing mostly on larger cities where hazards are more detrimental. The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and was created to improve resident’s and local leader’s abilities to understand and manage climate-related risks and opportunities making their communities more resilient to these extreme events. The framework provides several steps towards resilience, but for the purpose of this study we utilized the steps of exploring hazards across the region and assessing vulnerability & risks of these hazards. We then investigated a response to one of these hazards and risks.

While also establishing goals for the project our team felt it was important in understanding the history of how Chattanooga has responded to these challenges and what goals they currently have set to address the issue. Our team found that while Chattanooga has established many sustainable initiatives to rectify a long history of factory pollution and poor air quality the city hasn’t taken a reactive approach to the lasting effects and current risks they now face. Our team also discovered a recent initiative from a local non-profit, Green Spaces, which focuses on regional sustainability in the Chattanooga area. The Integrated Community Sustainability Plan outlined a series of collective goals, values, strategies, and tactics to advance Chattanooga’s environmental, social, and economic sustainability. These Goals and Values then helped our team to establish Key Values that would then frame our design process.

Design for Equitable Communities:
During our discovery period our team found that like most cities, Chattanooga’s underserved groups including minorities, lower income, and elderly community members were further at risk of heat related injuries. With the lack of parks or tree canopies and their dependencies on public transit and walking, it was important to address the issue of mobility throughout the city. While these groups were important to recognize we also wanted to understand how our Appalachian Oasis would best serve the city as a whole and be adaptable to the different needs of the communities and residents that move through the city. Our team developed 3 distinct fictional depictions of how people may navigate the city and how the Appalachian Oasis may be adapted and positioned across the city to protect and support their mobility. The characters depicted were meant to represent the experiences of various groups in the community and capture their needs or daily interactions. This exercise provided insight to the challenges and opportunities created by the oasis that would continue to inform our research.

Design for Water:
An important function of the Appalachian Oasis is to provide high pressure misting that would create a cooled micro-climate for those that use it. The high-pressure system utilizes less water and increases pressure to flash evaporate and cool the air around it. The intent would be that this is used during extremely hot days and not year around to conserve water.

It was also important that the oasis be self-sustaining and in order to produce water that would supply the misting system, water collection and storage would need to be incorporated. During our discovery phase we found that fog collection was a process where large vertical mesh netting could harvest water by inducing fog-droplets to flow down and be collected. Through our research we discovered that Our design incorporates mesh panels both for the function of fog collection, but also to provide shading for users. The water that is collected would be collected and stored in an underground holding tank and supplemented by utility water if required.

Design for Energy:
Another important function of the Appalachian Oasis is providing both low distribution lighting at night for safety and device charging capabilities for public use. Each modular structure has and would be used to house infrastructure for capturing, storing, and distributing power. Collection would occur through small flexible solar panels that are attached to the mesh netting creating a solar panel membrane. When collected the solar power would then be stored in a battery back located in the internal structure of the ‘grass blade’ and distributed for its intended function. The intent is by using low-voltage lighting and minimal device charging, the oasis would be a self-sustaining power source, but can also be connected to a utility grid for supplemental power as required.

Design for Well-being:
The sole purpose of the Appalachian Oasis is to increase mobility across the city and community by providing shelter and protection from the threat of high temperatures as they experience the city. Studies have found that in many communities where destinations are more than 5 minutes walking distance many residents will opt to drive instead, but for those that choose not to drive or have no choice at all are left without any public amenities or rarely natural shade to protect them. The intent of the Oasis is that it is easily deployable, adaptable, and low-impact so that they can be installed in optimal locations to capture a large pedestrian shed and create a network of identifiable shelters to help navigate throughout the city. While the intent is to support those most in need, our hope would be that creating a city-wide network of Appalachian Oasis would increase the walkability of Chattanooga.

Design for Change:
The Appalachian Oasis has been designed in response to the threatening changes of our climate. The intent is that with a simple modular structure and variables of the functions and spatial formations they can create an adaptable and easily mountable and demountable construct that responds to the direct needs and function of its users. Through exploration of formal configurations, we found that the Appalachian Oasis can adapt to a large variety of programs and uses for current and future groups as needs change in the future.

Design for Discovery:
The goal of the research was to provide a solution that is applicable to our practice and communities. Through various presentations and a formal white paper, we continue to share our findings with our colleagues and community to help inspire and provide a potential solution that will increase and protect the mobility of everyone in our communities.