Copperhill, Tennessee, USA
Copper Basin, an eco-resort designed by Scott Morris and the team of woman-owned BLUR Workshop, is located on 85 acres of unspoiled Tennessee wilderness on the beautiful Ocoee River adjacent to the historic mining town of Copperhill.
The project is comprised of twelve guest cabins, a 20-room luxury inn, conference facilities, a world-class restaurant/culinary center, and a riverside boathouse.
Inspired by the local history and culture, Copper Basin is an all-inclusive 5-star ecological retreat focused on connecting guests with the natural environment through architecture, interior design, and amenity programming.
The primary planning objective for the design was to create a memorable guest experience with minimal impact on the pristine natural environment.
Copper Basin has recently been awarded a 2022 American Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The challenge was to fully integrate the facility into a site with dramatic topography and dense old-growth forests without undermining the existing ecosystem.
Several unique planning strategies were employed to seamlessly marry the built and natural environments including componentizing the program to allow for smaller flexible footprints, embracing a dramatic sectional response that allows the space to terrace down the main hillside, and utilizing structural and construction practices that don’t require clear-cutting and mass grading.
As a result, only the hotel and pool deck are built on a platform of retaining walls, instead of leveling with fill, while the guest cabins and boathouse are nestled into the earth or stand above it on columns.
The site Is traversed by a long winding staircase which takes you from the hotel all the way down to the boathouse at the water’s edge.
This trip from top to bottom takes you through the entire property and between the trees and landscape.
Utilizing hearty materials like stone, timber, and masonry, allowed the property to express a modern feeling while being able to endure and relate to its wooded environment.
This project design was highly influenced by the site.
Guestrooms and public spaces orient in a way to connect guests with the river, forest, and mountains beyond.
The topography is extremely steep going from the peak at the entrance/lobby, and the main body of the hotel, all the way down to the boathouse on the water’s edge.
The architectural response leverages this natural condition to create a unique environment that encourages exploration and connections with nature.
While the design team had to place the main hotel block and pool on a flat surface, they utilized concrete-encased columns to make each one of the guest cabins hover above the natural topography.
Furthermore, they were able to place the boathouse right on the water’s edge, yet keeping it high enough to allow for the natural rise and fall of the river.
It was absolutely necessary to touch as lightly as possible so as to disturb the least amount of natural land as necessary.
The intention was to create a sanctuary-like environment where one would move through the exterior portions of the resort yet still feel like they were among the trees and natural landscape.
Lastly, while it is hard to see, a number of roadways meander throughout the trees which allows for back-of-house access and deliveries.
Almost all of the roads are compacted built-up gravel roadways in an effort to work with the topography as much as possible and disturb as little as possible.
Project: Copper Basin
Architects: BLUR Workshop
Lead Architect: Scott Morris
Client: Confidential
Photographs Courtesy of the Architects
