During
the weekend of the 30th of August to the 2nd of September
students currently in the studios of Professors Theodore Shelton and Robert
French were treated to southern hospitality of the utmost at Lone Oaks Farms in
Hardeman County, Tennessee. Provided with premium accommodations, bountiful
southern meals, and all-terrain vehicles, students were encouraged to explore
all the site had to offer.
The
landscape at Lone Oaks is that of a 1,600 acre garden. Laboriously restored to
its native species of flora and fauna, the woods on the site have been cleared
in very intentional ways, allowing for ideal views of the groomed vistas and
swimming ponds, and only allowing for views of the existing buildings at
certain points along the paths. Everything built at Lone Oaks was done so with
the principle that it be the best possible.
Our
greatest responsibility and challenge in programming and designing the
buildings on this site is to honor the original guiding principle of Lone Oaks
and to build in such a way that does not conflict with what has already been
done here.
This
can only be achieved with an extreme sensitivity to orientation. Qualities of
sunlight, wind, variations in topography and surrounding vegetation must be studied very carefully when choosing the location of
buildings. And conditions such as water adjacency, flora placement and height,
and topographical changes and manipulations must serve to control when and
where buildings are visible, how they relate to the landscape and to each
other, as well as how much sunlight and wind the buildings themselves receive.
The
site provides us with plenty of opportunities to construct buildings that are
subject to their landscape. Our intervention here should only be visible at
intended moments and related to one’s movements throughout the site. Buildings
should resemble the pastoral grouping of those existing on the site already.
When revealed, the clusters of buildings in the landscape will work together to
achieve
a harmonious pattern on the site.
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