Pier 865: The Walkable Sculpture Transforming Knoxville’s Park into Living Architecture

Pier 865: The Walkable Sculpture Transforming Knoxville’s Park

Public art rarely invites you to touch it — let alone walk on it, rest beneath it, or climb through it. Pier 865, the newest installation by MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY, breaks that boundary entirely.

More than a walkable sculpture, it is a piece of walkable architecture, reshaping Knoxville’s historic park into an immersive spatial experience where art, nature, and community merge.

A Structure Lifted from the Landscape

The design elevates the terrain itself: steps, ledges, curves, and platforms unfold as if they had grown from the earth.

Above, the main structure lands lightly on five slender legs, branching into three expressive wings:

1. A looping wing that extends forward

— creating a dynamic, sweeping frame that draws visitors inward.

2. A rising platform shaded by an aluminum canopy

— forming a natural stage for gatherings, performances, and community events.

3. A tapering wing that dips low into the landscape

— a quiet place to pause, breathe, and reconnect with the surrounding trees.

This blend of movement, elevation, and porosity echoes The Very Many’s signature style:biomorphic forms generated through computational design, transforming metal sheets into flowing, organic architecture.

A Park with Cultural Memory

Since 1986, this park has been a tribute to Knoxville’s country music heritage and a gathering space for local residents. Pier 865 builds on that legacy — not as a static monument but as:

• an interactive canopy

• an architectural landscape

• a public space designed for participation

It reframes the idea of sculpture as urban infrastructure, something to be used, inhabited, and lived with.

Where Art Becomes Environment

Constructed from ultra-light aluminum elements, Pier 865 reflects shifting sunlight, tree shadows, and the movement of visitors.It functions as:

• shelter

• stage

• path

• landmark

Its form feels both engineered and alive — an object you walk through, over, and around, blurring the line between sculpture and environment.

Public Art as Experience

Pier 865 embodies a new typology of public art:art you can inhabit.

It invites the community to climb, rest, observe, meet, and explore.Its structure supports not just physical movement, but social connection.

For designers, architects, and artists, it’s a reminder that public art can shape behavior, encourage interaction, and become part of a city’s everyday ritual.

Design as Living Structure

Projects like Pier 865 highlight the power of form as experience.

They reveal how design becomes a living system when it:

• reshapes social space

• blends with landscape

• invites participation

• uses geometry to choreograph movement

• transforms environment into story

Pier 865 is more than a sculpture. It is an evolving experience of place — a lesson in how contemporary design bridges art, community, and architectural imagination.

Written by Otávio Santiago, a visual designer whose work blends clarity, rhythm, and storytelling. Between Berlin and Lisbon, he creates across print, motion, branding, and immersive 3D environments.