Corey Blaskie Selected Works
FORGE DETROIT: Comprehensive Studio Building housing in Detroit is an opportunity to plant many seeds. Seeding a new neighborhood. Seeding new housing. Seeding new jobs. Seeding new skills. Seeding new traditions of craft and making. Seeding new avenues for cultural expression. Seeding an architecture for 21st century Detroit. This studio addressed a number of questions: What is a neighborhood? Specifically, what is a neighborhood in Detroit? How do new neighborhoods arise? What is architecture’s role in creating a neighborhood? Who will live in these neighborhoods? Who will be attracted to live here? Who will be able to afford to live here? Who will build these neighborhoods? Who will profit from the rebuilding? What is the role of design in determining affordability, financing and ownership? What makes it good for Detroit? Through prototypical architectural intervention and strategic use of “Pink Zoning�, Forge Detroit offers its users a place to work, a place to live, a place to relax, and an opportunity to take part in reshaping the community. The project positions the role of design and local small development in the revitalization of a community. The materiality of the architecture itself plays a significant role in seeding the neighborhood. The design strives to bring the craft brick trade to Detroit. Through the architecture and supported by it, an artisan craft is developed, providing the opportunity for members to be literally involved in the construction of their community and involved in its future success. fall 2016, kit mccullough, arch 672 partners: frankie gibase and adrian bonin university of michigan taubman college of architecture and urban planning
Elevation-Section Relationship:
Illustration of the screened-balcony space and the detailing of the associated construction.
Puritan Street View:
The Puritan street front is defined by a running row of Live-Work Townhomes, which provide opportunities for small scale developers to live and rent or work out of part of their investment as a way to offset the cost of construction. The goal of these Townhomes is to create a street presence that the area was missing previously.
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South Elevation scale: 1/8” = 1’-0”
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Green Alleyway:
The carriage homes located behind the Townhomes open up onto a green alley and present the opportunity for this space to become workspace or impromptu makerspaces. The hope is that this alley becomes a beacon of entrepreneurship and learning for the community around the new neighborhood.
East Elevation scale: 1/8” = 1’-0”
FORGE
DETROIT
Apartments + Retail Total Square Feet: 34,272 sf Studio: 5 1 BR: 8 2 BR: 5 3 BR: 3 Student Hubs: 3 Total Units: 24
Elevation:
Elevations illustrating the relationship of interior-exterior of the mixed-use building and the iconic image of the south facade functioning as a gateway.
At 4 lofted stories tall and 34,000 square feet, the residential + retail complex anchors the corner of Livernois Ave. and Puritan st. just south of UD Mercy. It’s construction highlights the craft brickwork that has been central to Detroit’s past architecture. The attention to brick is meant to not only connect to classic Detroit architecture, but also to reignite brick as a trade and craft. More intricate brick detail work is found throughout the project, and we see this as an opportunity to teach craft brickwork skills to local residents. In turn, they will have an opportunity to physically take part in reubuilding and reshaping their new community.The height of the building stands as an anomaly on our site. It’s south wall serves as a “billboard wall” that signals to visitors and drivers that new growth and new life is occuring here in the South University District
Model:
Close up of prototypical Architectural intervention and strategic use of “Pink Zoning”, Forge Detroit offers its potential users a place to work, a place to live, a place to relax, and ultimately an opportunity to take part in reshaping a vital area of their Detroit Community.
Elevation-Section Relationship:
The Live-Work Town is meant for complete flexibility and monetization for a small entrepreneur. The Carriage home and first floor can be rented out as separate units or as work spaces for entrepreneurial endeavors. The second floor balcony looks out onto Puritan and creates an active off-street presence.
Townhome Design:
These Townhomes are versatile in that they allow for multiple living situations and possible incomes. The first floor could become a work space, or rented out, as could a possible assembly unit at the back of the lot. They also allow for multiple living and income opportunities. We imagine many of the first floors of these buildings can become workspaces and makerspaces that face what we are calling our green alley
PALIMPSESTIC TERRITORIES: Devices of Speculative Ecologies The impetus for the thesis is an interest in methods of working and how the remnants of work completed may reintegrate themselves as grist for continued methods of working. The curiosity of the work sites itself in ‘Left for Dead ’ territories, (un)conditioned remains excised to the periphery. The approach augments methods and techniques of environmental philosophy, specifically it proposes a (re) framing of ecology as a medium of thought, exchange, and representation, wherein it becomes possible to speculate on futures of environmental design. The work situates itself between an indexical taxonomy and a choreographed play. A series of speculatively designed devices set up new methods of working on ecology as a medium of production. Linked to schools of environmental philosophy as means of program, the apparatic devices develop production methods, dispositions, temporally allied itineraries, contingent responses, and preferences. When introduced to the siting logics of a pseudo-spatial mine in Chile, these devices develop a relational calculus to the conditions on site and to one another. Palimpsestuous relationships become visible as layers of conditioned territories are developed and erased through device interactions. A series of taxonomic and notionally active drawings are produced as probatory techniques of device(ness), using techniques of autopsy, temporalism, and glitching to illustrate the methods in which these devices operate at the physical, ephemeral, narrative and representational levels. The site is illustrated as a temporally active drawing-model, which becomes surrogate for the playwright. It positions and repositions devices as a function of time over distance, conditionally adaptive the ‘playwright’ is responsive to data streams co-opted from site. The playwright is referentially active on the pseudo-site through the work it does on the representational site. winter 2017, perry kulper, arch 662 university of michigan taubman college of architecture and urban planning
Devices:
Speculatively designed devices set up new methods of working on ecology and are linked to schools of environmental philosophy as programmatic grist. Imaged are scanning devices, programmatic calibrators and pigment-seeking parasitic drones.
Notational Render Site Scenario:
The construct pulls the devices from the drawings around it and orients them in an alternative way. Changing site into drawing to be worked on in a palimpsest way. The construct is a play-wright for the devices on the real Chilean site, the scanner, the calibrator, the slipping pixel shifter, the topographic tracer, all representations of translated real-world conditions.
Pixel-Shifting Device (Top):
The device ingests inputs from external data streams and embeds them within the landscape painting, using it as an analogous site. Parts of the existing work is erased, shifted, spliced, glitched, codified and cataloged.
Landscape Painting Spliced (Right):
Through the re-interpretation of this Picturesque Landscape, the work is able to probe at deeper questions about ecology and sustainability embedded within the pigment. Painting as a medium is worked on by the devices in the construct, working in tandem with the designed devices of the Chilean site. Through the various techniques of representation, it is possible to unpack the thesis.
Feminist Archimedean Stratification Shifter :
Device that sifts through the stratified layers of earth seeking out the valuable minerals that remain after the mine is abandoned. The precious metal that remains is used to promote gender equality through targeted investment.
Entified Surrogate Species:
Device that takes on the role of a key-stone species in a particular ecosystem. Highly adaptable, ensures a healthy and functional ecosystem in areas ravaged by the destructive practices of humanity.
Nomadic Air Coagulator:
Device that slowly floats in herds absorbing the dust, debris, and airborne toxins released into the air. Through a process it coagulates them into solid material and deposits them back into the earth as a way of cleaning the air.
Droned Galvanic Tick:
Device that floats through the air gliding on air currents. Upon crashing to earth it releases a steady charge into the earth and through a chemical process it begins electroplating the earths surface with the precious metal found in the mine.
16 scenarios for site intervention ranging from strict ecology to fantastical narrative based site reconditioning. Each scenario poses new questions about ecology as a medium to be speculated upon by the architect. Through these speculative scenarios it is possible to engage the site in new and unique ways as a technique of discovering new methods of working.
POWER PROLOGUE: Conner’s Creek Power Plant This project embeds itself within the decommissioned Conner Creek Coal Power Plant on Detroit’s east side. The impetus being the re-utilization and re-conceptualization of the worlds aging power infrastructure to accommodate a range of prospective futures. In this inherently complex examination, futures should project morphological, functional, and typological characteristics to make a case for reuse. The case also demonstrates social, ecological, and economic benefits for local stakeholders, and outlines prototypical design opportunities for future plant closures and reuse across the Great Lakes region. Performance Plant acknowledges the unique existing spatial patterns and physical form of these early power plants and sets out to utilize the spatiality through the insertion of novel programs. The novelty of the programmatic interventions is the result of movement patterns in relation to site and individuals. Through the scalar and spatial qualities of the power plant, existing infrastructure is reimagined, coal sheds become impromptu vertical stages, the coal chute becomes the balcony in an interactive roaming version or Romeo and Juliet. It is through slowly phased design and community engagement that decommissioned industrial sites like Conner Creek can become culturally vibrant hubs of activity in rebuilding cities like Detroit. The Performance Plant embraces the potency of design and performance that has been neglected in the Motor City and seeks to push back on the preconceived roles and programs of industrial architecture. winter 2016, dan kinkead, arch 562 university of michigan taubman college of architecture and urban planning
Ballet Recital near Coal Crushers
Fashion Show in Turbine Gallery
Performance Art near Breaker House
Performance Art utilizing site conditions
Theater performance of The Lion King
Concert using existing architecture
Intervention Phasing:
The intervention roll-out occurs in phases to spread out the investment required from DTE. The project is meant as an initial step for reutilizing the site with the intention of a more permanent solution in the future. Overtime the plan is for the intervention to transform the potentially polluted site into a thriving ecosystem through community engagement.
Site Section:
The relationship between interior-exterior is vital to the intervention. The interior of the power plant gives opportunities for a multiplicity of simultaneous events to occur, allowing for novel interactions between programs. The turbine house wall opens up into an amphitheater condition and allows for vertical entertainment. The unique conditions on the site encourage radical entertainment through experimentation.
ZERO NET EMISSION: High Performance Townhomes The ambition of the work is to discover design strategies that meet the requirements for a zero net emission residential building. The focus lies in finding the right balance between an optimized building envelope and the technical effort for building operation to increase the comfort level of those occupying the architecture. The architecture is a block of townhomes, a typology chosen in response to the market of Ann Arbor, MI as well as an investigation of the potential advantages of shared party walls in terms of energy cost reduction in high performance architecture. The split level design opens opportunities for more efficient ventilation through the stack effect in the central atrium space. Utilizing high efficiency glazing and insulation increases the effectiveness of both the passive and active systems designed for the building. The resulting architecture marries aesthetics and the highly sophisticated technical demands associated with high efficiency design. winter 2017, lars junghans, arch 505 university of michigan taubman college of architecture and urban planning
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PASSIVE SYSTEMS
solar gain
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PASSIVE SYSTEMS
stacked ventilation
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PASSIVE SYSTEMS
thermal mass
Passive Systems Diagrams:
Diagrams illustrating the passive systems deployed in the Townhomes. The central atrium space functions as both ventilation (using the stackeffect) as well as a trombe wall during the winter to retain solar heat. The large windows face the south to take advantage of the strong solar radiation.
North Elevation:
The simple elevation uses minimal windows on the north side to reduce the amount of heat lost while still maintaining the modern aesthetic intentioned by the architects. The angled roof provides added light from the east to supplement the minimal north facing windows.
Floor Plans:
The building is arranged as a split level to optimize the ventilation within the space as well as to keep it as open as possible for light to penetrate the interior spaces from the south side glazing. The front side of the building contains the sleeping spaces while the south side is reserved for living spaces and the kitchen.
90mm cross-laminated timber wall panel construction triple-glazed high performance operable aluminum storefront window system hardwood floor system on 2x wood sleepers w/ high performance acoustic insulation
hardwood floor system on 2x wood sleepers w/ high performance acoustic insulation
exterior hardy board cladding system on high performance tyvek weather barrier
12� tji floor joists filled w/ high performance cellulose insulation 90mm cross-laminated timber floor construction
12� tji floor joists filled w/ high performance cellulose insulation
6 mil vapor barrier
triple-glazed high performance operable aluminum storefront window system hardwood floor system on 2x wood sleepers w/ high performance acoustic insulation
Details:
High Performance details using Cross Laminated Timber panel construction and high performance insulation. The envelope is highly impermeable to reduce air infiltration and reduce the need for active systems. The CLT was chosen to provide increased thermal mass during the Michigan winters, the increased thermal properties slightly reduces the heading load in colder climates.
12� tji floor joists filled w/ high performance cellulose insulation
zinc standing seam roofing panel system
triple-glazed high performance aluminum storefront window system
ceramic tile on thinset mortar bed on 4” poured concrete slab
weatherproof membrane system 8” XPS R45 insulation 10” XPS R45 insulation 8” steel-reinforced poured concrete foundation wall
triple-glazed high performance operable aluminum storefront window system
8” steel-reinforced poured concrete foundation wall fiber cement cladding w/ urethance sealant
mineral fiber insulation R4/in high performance rigid roof insulation 10” XPS R45 insulation 4” poured concrete slab
drainage tile
12” tji floor joists filled w/ high performance cellulose insulation
90mm cross-laminated timber wall panel construction
hi-load 60psi XPS rigid insulation