Passageways

Description

ABOUT PASSAGEWAYS

Passageways: Activating the Urban Alley through Architecture presented by AIA Tennessee and the River City Company is a community outreach project of the 2016 AIA Tennessee State Convention held August 24-26 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is a public architecture exhibit focusing on the urban fabric that exists in the space between our city’s buildings.
These forgotten and often times overlooked voids exist throughout our city. The intent of the exhibit is to exemplify the potential of these spaces and the benefits they have in creating a healthy urban environment throughout Chattanooga. In order to realize the full potential of these auxiliary spaces, we must change the way we fundamentally think about them. Within the context of the American urban environment, alleyways are often disregarded as solely service corridors, lined with dumpsters, mechanical units and fire-escapes, with just enough room for a vehicle to pass between buildings. Historically though, alleys were thought of much differently than the contemporary model. The origin of the word alley is late Middle English, stemming from the Old French word alee meaning “walking or passage” or aller meaning “go”. In large cities predating the automobile, these “passages” (or Passageways) were intended to create a path for the ambulatory human being. Often times the scale and design of these spaces was indicative of this and reflected in the rich activity that occurred daily within these spaces. Today, rarely do we find an alley that focuses on human scale or of walking through from one place to the next. Even rarer is it that these pathways are a place for human activity. The purpose of Passageways is to re-imagine Chattanooga’s alleyways; to breathe life into these auxiliary spaces, to create a place, a destination in itself, and to demonstrate the value, the importance, and the potential of these between spaces and the significance they have to our built urban fabric.

THE CHALLENGE AIA

Tennessee and River City Company are pleased to announce an open invitation to architects, designers, engineers, and artists from around the world to take part in the Passageways: Activating the Urban Alley through Architecture design challenge. The competition is an investigation into the importance and the potential of auxiliary pedestrian spaces throughout Chattanooga, and the creation of space within our existing connected alleyway network. The overall program of the competition is meant to be free and open to anyone. We are asking that you design a spatial installation that is habitable and can be adapted for use as a small public event space. The design must be safe for public use and have the ability to be installed within a week’s schedule. Off-site prefabrication of any component prior to the week of installation is welcome. Certain elements of the exhibit must be able to be left standing for a minimum of at least one year while other elements may be deemed temporary and removed shortly after the events planned around the AIA Tennessee State Convention, August 24-26, 2016. The design proposal should intelligently and creatively optimize the surrounding urban context of the site to create a thoughtful, engaging, and well-designed space. Participants should consider the constructibility of their designs along with schedule and budgetary constraints. Each submission selected as a funded installation will receive between $5,000-$10,000* for the construction of their design. Our selection committee will be looking for proposals that best utilize the surrounding context and best meet the design criteria. The winning Design Teams will also be required to be present during the AIA Tennessee State Convention, August 24-26** with a public opening the evening of the 24th.