Summary: Deconstructing the collective developmental patterns of Chattanooga, Adam Gumowski, Assoc. AIA; Keith Van de Riet; and Stephen Mueller created form for their theoretical downtown cultural center. Following is a team design statement.

Chattanooga has been developed and distorted as a response to cultural forces. The movement of people and the flux of expanding commerce along the Tennessee River provided the initial generative urban force, with the city becoming dense in an area tangential to one of its curves. The introduction of the orthogonal street grid, the onset of developing industry, and the incision of the highway system imposed new forces on this area, further distorting the city form.
The city is a complex, dynamic, and interrelated system of these urban forces; it is a turbulent field of cultural activity.

Site and context: delineated force
The revitalization of downtown and the reclaiming of the riverfront have created new cultural centers surrounding the site. The introduction of these attractions (the stadium, the Creative Discovery museum, the I-MAX theater, the aquarium, and the river park) has in turn created a density of activity and the need for interrelation of disparate elements.

These new centers are connected by a series of paths entering and leaving the site. These paths delineate urban forces that generate forms on the entire site. The forces diverge around the smokestack, the permanent object that generates turbulence in their flow.

Form generation: tangential divergence
The form was generated as a series of curves tangential to and divergent from the paths. The displacement of these curves from the original paths records the spatial-temporal effects of the forces acting through them. Surfaces connecting these curves were then created to enclose the programmatic volumes. These surfaces were then subjected to the linear forces intrinsic in the paths. Distortion of form and the collaborative effect of the several forces were resolved through a series of conceptual computer modeling and animation techniques.

The interdependence of the various surfaces resulted in the complete integration of site and context with building form. The site became a confluence of the cultural forces, with the Experimental Performing Arts Center and a new urban plaza developing within the resultant turbulence.

Materials express the continuous and derivative nature of the surfaces. The plaza incorporates the bricks of the existing pedestrian paths from which it was derived. Surfaces seen as distinct from original form are expressed in steel and glass. A media wall along the east mass serves to accentuate the dynamic nature of the form and context.

Pedestrian movement along the paths is uninterrupted through the site. This maintains the functional aspect of each path as part of the larger urban circulation. Entry into the building form is tangential to the paths, delineating interior circulation and articulating interior space. The development of the public lobby and the generation of the experimental theater are direct results of these internalized forces.

Structural concept: interdependent informality
The structural method superimposes the three-dimensional zones of the divergent curves with a network of programmatic grids. The result is a non-hierarchical system that responds to the hybrid logic of its multiple components. This informal ordering system creates interdependence between all inputs and their inherent consequences.