TAUBMAN COLLEGE architecture + urban planning
University of Michigan
To Detroit, for the endless inspiration
TAUBMAN COLLEGE architecture + urban planning
University of Michigan Master of Urban Design
2015-2016 Š The Regents of the University of Michigan All rights reserved A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning 2000 Bonisteel Boulevard Ann Arbor 48109 www.taubmancollege.umich.edu
DARE
NINE URBAN DESIGN THESIS
Table of Contents
Volume I: DARE
Introduction
Students Manasvi Ashok Bachhav
Travis Crabtree
Nine Urban Thesis for Detroit
Learning from the Ruhr & Rust Belt
A-7
B-07
Just Kidding
Rust Belt Region
A-10
India | Sir J.J. College of Architecture University of Mumbai B. Arch
Utopian Campus Converter
U.S.A. | Mississippi State University B. L. A.
Jonathan Adnan Hanna
U.S.A. | University of Michigan B. S. Arch
A-34
China | South China University of Technology B. Arch
Shao-Chen Lu
Taiwan | Tamkang University B. Arch
Nishant Raman Mittal
India | Maharaja Sayajirao University Baroda B. Arch
Luneoufall Vital Gallego U.S.A. | Texas Tech University B. S. Arch
Melia Jae West
U.S.A. | University of Notre Dame B. Arch
Zhe Zhang
China | Suzhou University of Science and Technology B. Arch
Biographies Acknowledgments
Instructor
MarĂa Arquero de AlarcĂłn Associate Professor, Architecture and Urban Planning Director, Master of Urban Design
B-10
Ruhr Region B-24
IBA Emscher Park Mine the Gap A-48
B-34
Ruhr.2010 B-40
Invert City Mengyu Jiang
Volume II: DISCOVER
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Duisburg
Fricticious Realities
Nord Landschaftspark
A-90
Bind-ary A-114
An Island in the City A-134
B-46
B-50
Essen B-54
Zollverein Industrial Complex B-56
Gelsenkirchen B-58
The City and the City A-146
Expresscape A-156
Nordsternpark B-60
Bochum B-62
Dortmund A-194 A-196
Volume I: DARE
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Volume III: DEVISE Field Guides to the Ruhr
Simultaneous Urbanisms
Discourses in Urbanism
Bus Stops to Bandstands
Post/Re Urbanisms
Airborne 48127
Cities: X Lines. Approaches to City+Open Territory Design
D-06
[Ruhr] Appropriation C-68
Play [Grounds] C-78
Big Shelters C-86
Moving Boundaries
E-66
D-10
D-16
E-76
Infra-Eco-Logi Urbanism
A “Motor” City Center
E-88
D-22
Urban Ecology: Detroit and Beyond
The Moving Skyline
C-96
D-28
Postcards of the Ruhr
Radical-con-nexus
E-98
C-100
D-34
Urbanism: Working with Doubt
The Hidden Eye
Reconstructs
Water Urbanism East
C-108
E-106
E-114
D-40
On Landscape Urbanism World of Walls C-112
E-124
An Island in the City D-46
Typological Urbanism Authenticity C-114
E-130
Church Express D-52
Formerly Urban E-136
Germany in Motion C-136
Bind-ary
Conversations
D-58
E-146
C-138 C-140
E-150 E-152
Volume II: DISCOVER
Volume III: DEVISE Table of Contents
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A-6
Volume I: DARE
INTRODUCTION Volume I: DARE
This volume showcases the work developed in the master of urban design capstone course (UD742). Last in the degree studio sequence, the work draws upon the intellectual inquiry and design work developed over previous semesters. As part of the year-long focus in Detroit, this capstone course offers a platform for students to advance their personal research agendas through the development of a design thesis project. To support the collective and individual agendas and set a platform for exchange of ideas among students, the course includes three inter-related modules that address modes of practice (through the experiential learning component traveling to Detroit and the German Ruhr Region and engaging with local urban agents), modes of production (through the exposure to techniques and tools of making, and the study of texts and projects), and modes of design inquiry (through the development of a final thesis sited in Detroit). The three modules are staged over the course of the semester to build on each other through the development of different exercises including individual and collective components. Introduction
This first volume, “DARE: Nine urban design thesis for Detroit” initiates the sequence showcasing nine design speculations developed by the students. Operating as a synthesis of the work developed during the semester in the theories and field trip sections, each proposal opens up possibilities to reimagine radical conditions of urbanity for the future of the metropolitan region. The second volume, “DISCOVER: Learning from the Ruhr” establishes a disciplinary conversation between the Rust Belt and Ruhr Regions, building in their industrial past and examining the agency of design in their ongoing transformation. The volume showcases the students’ Field Guides of the Ruhr as recorded during the site visit to the German region. The last volume, “DEVISE: Simultaneous Urbanisms Detroit ” represents nine found urban conditions in Detroit and draw imaginary urban narratives around them. To instigate the larger disciplinary claims of these quick explorations, the volume includes readings on urban discourses and conversations with local practitioners and academics. A-7
A
NINE URBAN
DESIGN THESES FOR DETROIT
This volume showcases nine urban theses for Detroit. The scope and reach of the projects are diverse, tackling issues of governance structure, accessibility and infrastructural reform, provision of education, industrial transformation, landscape rediscovery, and political commentary. In every case, students developed alternative means of representing the city and its many constituencies. The work was developed in the span of four weeks, after the studies on Simultaneous Urbanisms and the trip to the Ruhr Region. The following are nine projects culminating a oneyear study of Detroit and its Metropolitan Region.
JUST KIDDING Nishant Mittal
The best learning always occurs when children spend unplanned and uncounted hours outside investigating, experimenting, exploring, and playing – which is to say - spontaneously and delightfully designing their own curriculum. The learning centers today are separated from their communities by long highways, limited hours, inflexible spaces, and most of all, a blinkered vision about the myriad ways in which schools can and should be a part of the social ecosystem. The current state of Detroit’s public elementary schools renders a fragile condition of the built environment that constructs children’s imagination at early ages. The task of looking ahead at elementary schools is an opportunity to explore new ways of
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envisioning relationships between pedagogy, social agency, and the education of children in the unstable urban environment. The project interrogates the existing infrastructure of Detroit pubic elementary school sites and looks for alternative responses in the delivery of education. The project injects learning spaces within existing schools, and develops mobile learning devices that can travel to locations where children do not have access to education. This redeployment of a device is used for both reconceiving our cities around the exchange of knowledge, and for giving shape to urban form as the reification of that exchange in the long-time condition of shrinkage.
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5
4
JUST KIDDING
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FACTS AND FIGURES
Total Population (2010) - 713,777 Population Under 14 - 207,014 Detroit Public School enrolled students- 69,616
2005 - 34 School closed due to meet a $200 million deficit 2010 - 45 DPS out of 179 closed 20
14
21 22
8
2 23 24 25
EXISTING SCHOOLS
26
10
FISHER MAGNET LOWER ACADEMY
CARLETON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
WAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
BROWN, RONALD ACADEMY
OAKLAND INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY
CESAR CHAVEZ ACADEMY
THE JAMES & LEE BOGGS SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PREPARATORY
CHRYSLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
BENNETT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
CESAR CHAVER ACADEMY
CLEMENTE, ROBERTO ACADEMY
NEINAS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MAYBURY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
THIRKELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
HENRY FORD ACADEMY
MANN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
DETROIT LEDEARSHIP ACADEMY
JOY PREPARATORY ACADEMY
YOUNG COLEMAN ELEMENTARY
BAGLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
PASTEUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
VERNOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MICHIGAN TECHICAL ACADEMY
RUTHERFORD WINARS ACADEMY
COOKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
OLD REDFORT ACADEMY
WRIGHT, CHARLES SCHOOL
JUST KIDDING
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7 28
1 27
26
12 25
13
23
22
21
20
15
16
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EXISTING LOCATION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF DETROIT
1 MILE SCHOOL RADIUS
1 MILE SCHOOL RADIUS
Black - 82.7% White - 10.6% Latino - 6..8%
DETROIT RIVER
1 MILE SCHOOL RADIUS
1 MILE
DETROIT”S PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
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POTENTIAL LOCATIONS WHERE THE MOBILE SCHOOLS CAN BE DEPLOYED
1
2
3
1
3
4
1053 CHILDREN BELOW AGE 15
2238 CHILDREN BELOW AGE 15
1257 CHILDREN BELOW AGE 15
1405 CHILDREN BELOW AGE 15
6094 CHILDREN BELOW AGE 15 2
5
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
1060 CHILDREN BELOW AGE 15
JUST KIDDING
6
3
4
1
2 5
6
AREAS OF MAXIMUM NUMBER OF CHILDREN BELOW THE AGE OF 15 1 MILE SCHOOL RADIUS
FACTS AND FIGURES
1 MILE SCHOOL RADIUS
DETROIT RIVER
1 MILE SCHOOL RADIUS EACH PEAK HEIGHT REPRESENTS THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN .
TRACTS WITH MAX POVERTY
TRACTS WITH MAX CHILDREN POPULATION
EXISTING SCHOOLS
DENSITY OF CHILDREN WITHIN THE HOLLOW CORE 1
2
3
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2
3
4
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1 MILE
SISTER SCHOOL
MOBILE SCHOOL LOCATIONS
MOTHER SCHOOL
JUST KIDDING
DYNAMIC SCHOOL SITES WITH IN THE HOLLOW CORE NETWORK
NOTES - The current state of the Detroit’s public elementary schools renders a fragile condition of the built environment that constructs children’s imagination at early ages. The task of looking ahead at the elementary schools is an opportunity to explore new ways of envisioning relationships between pedagogy, social agency, and the education of children in the unstable urban environment.
EDUCATION VOID
MOTHER SCHOOLS
MOBILE SCHOOL LOCATIONS
TEST SITE MOBILE SCHOOLS
MOTHER SCHOOLS
MOBILE SCHOOL DEPLOYMENT
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EXISTING SCHOOLS
1 MILE
JUST KIDDING
MAXIMUM DENSITY OF CHILDREN BELOW 15
ZONE WITHOUT PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
DETROIT PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AROUND THE HOLLOW REGION
1 MILE SCHOOL RADIUS
EDUCATION VOID
DETROIT RIVER
POVERTY AND CHILDREN CONCENTRATION EXISTING SCHOOLS
E
EXPLODED VIEW OF THE DIFFERENT LAYERS
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POTENTIAL LOCATION WHERE MOBILE SCHOOLS CAN BE DEPLOYED POTENTIAL LOCATIONS WHERE THE MOBILE SCHOOLS CAN BE DEPLOYED
1
2
1
5
2
3
4
8 6 9
10
15 11 12 7
15 13 16 14 16
16
ZONES WITH MAXIMUM CHILDREN DENSITY EMPTY REGION WITHIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
0
5 Miles 7
8
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One can consider the current situation of public elementary schools in Detroit to be that of a hollow core. After mapping existing elementary schools in Detroit, we find that areas of relatively high population of children are not only severely under served by educational infrastructure, but they are not served at all. The children in these unserved areas are forced to travel great distances by utilizing relatively inadequate public transportation. Instead of forcing children to travel these great distances, why don’t we bring these schools to the children? Due to the lack of funding, brick and mortar schools are an unfeasible method of delivering education. Thus we have purified the spatial experience of education to its fundamental form. This form takes the shape of fence, threshold, corridor as classroom. These are the fundamental building blocks of a healthy functioning of a school. It may run for weeks or on an hourly basis, depending on the demand and the children enrolled within it.
Mobile units inserted within an existing elementary school building
Mobile units inserted in neighborhoods without schools
Different forms of the fundamental building blocks are designed to coalesce with one another in an infinite array of possibilities. Neighborhood block groups or other leading figures in the community, in collaboration with a mother school, decide upon the configuration of fundamental building blocks that will derive their school, thus giving the community the social agency to attain education as per the needs and demands of the local children. Schools mixed with other programs, permanent in nature Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Just Kidding
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JUST KIDDING EXCLUSION EDGES
FENCING
CONFINEMENT MONOTONOUS ACCESS POROSITY INTERACTION IMPRESSION THIN RIGID
ENTRY
STATIC UNYIELDING EXPANDED PLAYFUL ENGAGING DELIGHTFUL LINEAR
CORRIDOR
ISOLATING CIRCULATORY DISENGAGING MULTIDIMENSIONAL MINGLE DIFFUSIVE ENGAGING STRUCTURED
CLASSROOM
CONFINED PASSIVE IMMOBILE CREATIVE LIBERATING INTERACTIVE DYNAMIC UNINTERESTING BANAL
PLAYSCAPES
UNINSPIRING DETACHED NEW CONNECTED
COMPONENTS OF SCHOOL
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FENCING COMPONENTS OF SCHOOLS
CURVE AND SIT
POROUS
INSIDE OUT
MOUNDS
MODULATED
COVERING
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ENTRANCE COMPONENTS OF SCHOOLS
LE
SLIDE IN
SLIDE
TUBES
MAIZE
THEME
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SCHOOL FRONT
CORRIDOR MOUNDS
COVERING
COMPONENTS OF SCHOOLS
POROUS
ALTERNATE
FRAMED
VOLUME
INTRUSION
PLAY
MEANDERING
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USION
CLASSROOM
OPEN EDGE
COMPONENTS OF SCHOOLS
MED
CHAMFERED
DERING
VOLUMES
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UNDER COVER
ANGULAR
SLOPING ROOF
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ALL
RE
HANG
GULAR
PING ROOF
CLASSROOM COMPONENTS OF SCHOOLS
ER COVER
ALL AROUND
BUNKER
RETREAT
SPACE SHUTTLE
HANGING CUBE
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Just Kidding
WORKERS DEN
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POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS OF COMPONENTS TO FORM SCHOOLS
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Components of a mobile school traveling to one of the locations in Detroit.
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School deployed in a community park and neighborhood center.
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Community chooses and customizes school components for their needs.
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Attachment within the existing classroom of a working elementary school.
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Just Kidding
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Em
Education
JUST KIDDING
ge er nc
or t
As s
oc ia t io ns
Networking
Networking
Existing Schools
Detroit Public Schools
ds
un yF
Neighbourhoods Nursing Homes
Su
pp
NGO’S
Networking
Learning
Research
Community Centre
Deloyment
Contributors
Teachers Training
Accessibility
Book Supplies
Communication
Delivery Bookings
s
r to en
Assembly
Collection
g
sin
ha rP
e Us
t fe
Sa
y
Food
M
r ra
Lib
y
or W
ps
ho
ks
p
ou Gr
ng
Co
MOTHER SCHOOL NETWORK
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Site Storage
ni
tio
i nd
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Connections
Mother School
MOTHER SCHOOL
The mother school is a critical component from which all services of Just Kidding are disseminated. It acts as both an ephemeral structure - in that it is constantly changing, and also as a temporal one - in that it is the only permanent piece of the puzzle. From the mother school all services are provided, including supplies, scheduling, training of teachers, workshops, libraries, the location where physical structures become recharged and where the logic of dissemination is decoded. The mother schools are critically located in close proximity to existing social programs such as nursing homes, community centers and NGO’s to both feed off of and reinforce existing institutional frameworks, and to create new ones.
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UTOPIA CAMPUS CONVERTER Mengyu Jiang
Universities always occupy a large amount of land in the city. They differentiate themselves from the surrounding area through different social resources, geographic conditions and population types. Wayne State University is one of the most typical examples in Detroit. Located on a central site in Midtown Detroit, Wayne State University has contributed to educational advancement for decades, and to the city’s economic recovery. As part of the education urban strategy, the Wayne State campus continues to expand towards New Center and the surrounding area. By looking at the relationship of campus and city, Wayne State University is a “commuter university”,
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with 88% of students living in remote locations from the campus. Relying on automobiles to access the campus, WSU is socially separated from the city. As the city’s 10th largest employer, the campus will continue to grow, holding a larger percentage of non-taxable land in the city. A strategy is required for developing a more complete and vital community between the campus and the city, promoting the capacity to grow public resources so desperately needed by the citizens. This proposal looks at the enclave-like condition of the WSU campus, and speculates on different operations to address the condition of boundary formation, the notion of permeability and thresholds for more inclusion of a diverse public.
Volume I: DARE
Detroit as a city of enclaves: The image shows Detroit has many different kinds of enclaves, such as industrial fields, cemeteries, and campuses
Detroit is a city with many enclaves, that have always occupied a large amount of land in the city. They are separated from the surrounding area by demographic differences, geographic boundaries, etc.
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Utopia Campus Converter
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resources: google map
Important Universities in Detroit
from left to right: University of Detroit Mercy, Eastern Michigan University, Wayne State University: School of Medicine, Wayne State University
By comparing the universities in Detroit, Wayne State University is the most typical in the city. It has occupied more and more land in Midtown over time. Currently, it even goes across the highway. WSU will occupy more and more non-taxable land as it continues to grow.
1950
1960
1970
1980
1998
resources from: 2020_campus_master_plan
Campus growth over time
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Wayne State University site analysis
The image shows that Wayne State University now occupies a large amount of land in Midtown. In addition, there are many art institutions along Woodward Avenue. Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Utopia Campus Converter
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Urban architecture as represented at Wayne State University A-38
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d war
od Wo Av e enu campus boundary art institutions campus apartment higher income lower income lower education level highway Parking lots and structures
Mapping Wayne State University
Is Wayne State University (WSU) an enclave in Detroit? Mapping the campus and the surrounding conditions reveals striking differences in household income and education levels. While no fences or gates prevent access, WSU functions as a de facto social enclave. Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Utopia Campus Converter
This project intervenes in two critical locations of contrasting nature: the heart of the campus and its periphery. By sharing the campus’ resources, introducing housing, and extending the connection between campus and the surrounding neighborhoods, the proposal activates this central city area. A-39
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SCENARIO A: THE HEART Learning Playground Located in the center of Midtown, this area has very diverse surrounding conditions, including three elementary schools, a big hospital, the biggest school residential tower and the contemporary art museum. However, it is also the site of a large amount of surface parking lots that serve as an exclusionary perimeter. Learning Playground aims at sharing learning resources with the general city public. This educational and recreational interactive area benefits the surrounding neighborhoods with open campus resources, and also extends the campus’ operating schedule to entice a diverse group of residents and users. Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Utopia Campus Converter
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Outdoor Art Theater The outdoor art theater is adjacent to the contemporary art center which will attract people interested in art shows and create a space for open air exhibitions.
Student Work Exhibition This program encourages students to communicate with local neighbors and work on community based programs.
Children
Program Using Schedule
Adults
Students
Elderly people
By studying the activity time of different user groups, new programs can be designed to entice other groups at different time periods, activating the campus beyond the academic part-time schedule.
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Meditative Park The meditative park is beside a hospital and provides a quiet space for meditation. It is also a leisure playground attracting people citywide.
Holding
Adhering
Church Yard Playground The church yard provides nursing and learning resources for children from surrounding neighborhoods, including space where they can construct their playgrounds with temporary structures.
Sheltering
Standing
Space Forming Component The taxonomy shows how the open spaces are formed by using different methods
Programs that serve the surrounding neighborhood will be inserted into parking lots through different space forming methods. Not only can they share the resources of the campus to the public, but they also create an interactive area for different groups of people. Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Utopia Campus Converter
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Lifting
SCENARIO B: PERIPHERY Campus-Hood Wayne State University is a commuter school with 88% of its students living in remote areas, and relying on the highway for their commute. This intervention targets one of the moments in which the campus faces the highway, and creates both an urban marker and an extension. By bridging over the infrastructure, the insertion connects the central campus with the stadium and other recreational facilities. Using the existing parking garages as a plinth, the project inserts additional housing units and a bridge, redefining the north-west boundary of the campus with additional programs. In this way, Campus-Hood creates community identity through the campus embracing the highway as spectacle. A-44
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Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Utopia Campus Converter
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Community center with landscape pathway across the highway
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Public platform under the apartments
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Great Lakes Metropolitan Salt Mining + Shipping
MINE THE GAP
Lake M
Manasvi Bachhav
The greatest rock salt production in the U. S. is obtained from the Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario region and has favored metropolitan mining locations for a century, capitalizing on the abundance of infrastructure. Despite this central location, and the stable demand for salt used in deicing operations, the mines have periodically been in and out of business in previous decades due to economic or structural issues. Approximately 8000 tons of salt are mined in Detroit every year. But, much like Michigan’s mineral wealth, only a fraction of it remains economically viable or environmentally friendly. Tapping into this resource industry, the project acknowledges the vital role of industry for the city’s economic health, and attempts to reconcile the confluence of industry in the heart of the city by hacking into the production processes. This allows for the unusual coupling of the underground productive systems with the vibrant cultures and threatened ecosystems on the surface. While water is identified as a necessary adjacency to REVEAL and ENABLE the production of salt, it also acts as a mode of elucidating the diversity of interactions between the public with the Rouge River, and the constantly shifting landscapes of production. Finally, Mine the Gap, challenges the mono-functional nature of industrial production, by celebrating industry and enabling multiple levels of civic engagement within the city at large. A-48
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Miles One ton of Cargo can can be carried per Gallon of Fuel
The Great Lakes region is a blanket for many underground resources for the North American continent, including salt. These salt mines are huge hidden landscapes of extraction, underground cities within cities, surrounded by vast infrastructural supply networks.
Great Lakes Navigation Fuel Efficiency and Environmental Impact
59 road
202
rail
607
0
Goderich
water
45
180 Miles
90
Detroit
Ojibway, Win
Cost of shipping by road 25 - 15 cents per ton mile Cost of shipping by water
3 cents per ton mile
Lake Huron
Michigan
ndsor
Goderich
Hampton Corners
Depth : 1800 ft 2.1 million tons/year
Depth : 2000 ft 5 million tons/year Lake Ontario
Lansing
Depth : 2300 ft 5.2 million tons/year
Lake Erie
Detroit
Mine Area : 1500 acres Depth : 1100ft
Moment of Intensity
Fairport
Ojibway
Depth : 2000 ft 1.3 million tons/year
Depth : 975 ft 2.7 million tons/year
Cleveland
Depth : 1800 ft 2.5 million tons/year
Great Lakes Salt Deposits
Shipping Route
Un-Operational Mine area
Major Metropolitan Salt Mines
Cleveland
Fairport
Lansing
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Hampton Corners
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Marathon Pet
Cap
Current Industries
appr
Zug Island - US Steel Co.
Current Industries
Carmeuse - Lime and Stone
Marathon Petroleum
Industrial boundary
For the past 50 years, Detroit has been the poster child for the North American post-industrial city. Flight of industry and vacancy have been synonymous with the image of the city. However, contrary to popular belief, a post-industrial city is not completely devoid of industry and Detroit is no different in this regard. The city and its peripheries are home to a number of large and small resource industries, such as Marathon Petroleum, US Steel, Carmeuse Lime and Stone and the Detroit Salt Company. Taking on this provocation, the project investigates the role of industry in a post-industrial city by looking at the Detroit salt mining industry during the life of the industry, and not after its decline.
Capacity approx. 10,410 tons per day
Cap
appr
Tan
appr
Detroit Salt Co.
Carmeuse - Lime and Stone ye Terminal
appro
BP Buckeye Terminal
Zug Island - US Steel Co.
Capacity approx. 123, 000 Gallons per day
Cap
Capacity approx. 1461 tons per day
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Cap
appr
Marathon Petroleum
US Steel
Carmeuse Lime and Salt
Detroit Salt Co. Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Mine the Gap
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Infrastructures of SALT Mining
r ive
it R
o etr
Site 02 - Reveal
D
Rouge River
Infrastructure
I-94
Roads +Rails Mine Shaft
Adjacent Conditions Residential Industrial
Site 01 - Enable
Institutional
SALT Mine Avg. Depth - 1000 ft
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Landscapes of SALT
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Choreography of SALT
Reveal
Mov eme nt o f
SAL Ta bov eg
rou nd
via Ro ug e
Ri
r ve
Movement of Brine
Rou g
e R iver
Dis
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e nc sta Di es mil - 2
Enable
0.5 miles stance -
M o vem ent o f SA LT
un de rg r ou
Choreographies of SALT traces the movement of salt both underground and above ground between the two interventions that partially Reveal and partially Enable the processes of salt production and distribution. Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Mine the Gap
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nd
REVEAL
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Salt + Ground + Water ecologies 1
4 2
Salt Harvesting Pool
Brine
1 2 3 4
Brine supply Evaporation cahmber to separate salt and water fresh water collection tank freash water supplied for different uses
Aquaculture Pool
1 3
1 pink salmon
atlantic salmon
mahi mahi
Fresh Water
Aquaculture
Recycled Water
5
Salt Harvested from the pools
blueback herring
Salt Water
Recreational Pools
Water Purification Terraces
Rouge River
Mechanical Evaporation of Salt
3
1 Fresh water 2 Saline water pools 3 platforms for drying and harvesting
catfish
white Bass
lake trout
bluefish
Recreation Pool
1 2
3
1 Cold water Pool 2 Thermal Pool 3 Recreation Grounds
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INVERT CITY Luna Vital
American sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein once said “systems are born, live long lives according to some rules, at some point come into crisis, and then bifurcate, and transform into something else.” Urban and architectural space operates not so differently than these systems. They reach their maximum structural capacity, then they’re reinforced, remodeled, reconstructed or demolished. In addition to the structural capacity of architectural space is the critic of its shrinkage; a question of permanence, and a call for the discipline of design to address time. With the advance in technology and globalization, with everything and everyone interconnected through an online network, architectural space begins to shrink by eliminating functions. Circumstantially, in cities like Detroit, this transformation into something else after crisis has not quite
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happened. The fabric has become static, and in functional distress. The project operates within the patterns and dynamics of the spatial and structural abundance crisis and functional distress of the 2000’s. The grounds of deployment have three things in common. Underused or unstable structures and amorphous grounds, which revolve around the third: Detroit’s interconnected rail lines, specifically the ones around the Inner Circle Greenway, bounded by Dequindre Street, Oakman Boulevard, and Livernois Avenue. Invert City portrays the internalization of urbanism through a system of attraction points in the distressed fabric of a city like Detroit. This system projects a new density of use and reveals dormant systems that rely on the critical instability of architectural space to only then transform into something else.
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Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Invert City
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CSO outfall
detroit renewable power
Invert City aims to reinterpret existing infrastructure as a network of grounds for play along Detroit’s inner belt, reaching out to neighboring post-industrial sites and amorphous grounds. The Inner Circle Greenway, starting from Dequindre Cut, provides the framework for landing the spatial reconstructions and mobile play prototypes. The following drawing illustrates the territory around which the field of attractor points exist, and their locations respective to the Inner Circle Greenway.
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1
9
2
historic creek | water folly
11 10 10
8
12
3 7 9
new center stamping | steam hijack + deployment site
6
5
pallete supplier | play ground prototype C
11
13 4
4 3 2 1
rail intersect | play ground prototype A/B
14
5
12
6
13
7
Invert City Sites Inner Circle Greenway [existing] Inner Circle Greenway [proposed] District Heating Railway 8
Primary greenway network
14
Industrial Intersect Sites of inquiry 3000’
2.5 miles
5 miles
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PROTOTYPES A | mobile play ground 11
10
8
12
7 9
6
5
13
4 3 2 1
14
convertible shell
track convertible shell ground plane track
ground plane
Prototypes are the play ground modules deployed to less specific sites around the Inner Circle Greenway, within a one-mile radius. These vary in scale; although the physical grounds for their installation do not require extensive preparation, the context in which each prototype is installed has a different set of characteristics. For instance, due to its nature in size and features, the Mobile Play Ground is more flexible to its site. On the other hand, Building Intersect requires the fabric of two buildings at close proximity in order to exist.
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expansion/retraction mechanisms
expansion/retraction mechanisms
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expansion/retraction mechanisms expansion/retraction mechanisms
expansion/retraction mechanisms expansion/retraction mechanisms
d plane
nd plane
expansion/retraction mechanisms expansion/retraction mechanisms
expansion/retraction mechanisms expansion/retraction mechanisms
credit: Caleb Lightfoot
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B | folly 8
13
3
+24
+12
+0
-7 FF
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C | building intersect 8
13
3
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The proposal aims to reinterpret existing infrastructure as a network of grounds for play along the inner belt, reaching out to neighboring post-industrial sites and amorphous grounds. It aims to reverse the common understanding of Detroit as geographies of production, or the idea of revitalization through programs such as maker spaces, live work, cafes, restaurants, and other consumerbased programs. Instead, by hijacking existing district heating lines, historic water creeks, solar energy and wind patterns, Invert City redistributes population clusters and densities of use, where the devices become active agents in the transformation of the surrounding area.
A vertical playground and a steam field. Tracks that hook into the building allow for constant reassembly of playgrounds, and their deployment to other sites through the rail.
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E
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active rail line | resource transfer
skynet access platform
sky net [free jumping]
water tower [interior slide]
ne d
io
iss
m
de co m
ne
l li
ra i
invert city | STEAM FIELD
storage containers
parts transfer line
waste collection grounds
interior slide exit
climbing platforms
assembly tracks
recycling warehouse
device tracks
rry
Fe
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St
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Invert City
A horizontal playground and water field. Programmed for water gardens, and dissected at the faรงade for the access point of the spatial reconstructs.
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invert city | WATER FIELD
attachment [climbing wall]
water slides
water tower [storm water storag
water gardens
attachment a/skylight
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ge]
attachment c/ hanging threads
attachment b/scaffold
water gardens
attachment a/ water lines
d fre Al
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Invert City
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St
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As a former industrial site and destination for shipping containers, New Center Stamping functions as a site for deployment of devices, carrying recycled resources from industrial remains. At this site, the Invert City devices function as storage and transportation units for recycled components. Furthermore, the site functions as an occasional steam play ground and advertising strategy that hijacks the existing district heating line running underground.
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invert city | DEPLOYMENT FIELD
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Invert City portrays the internalization of urbanism with a system of attraction points in the distressed fabric of a city like Detroit. This system projects a new density of use and reveals dormant systems that rely on the critical instability of architectural space to only then transform into something else.
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Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Invert City
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FRICTICIOUS REALITIES: CURATING A UNESCO LANDSCAPE Melia West
Capitalizing on the recent designation as a UNESCO City of Design, Fricticious Realities speculates on the role of urban design in the representation of collective identities in the making and remaking of Detroit. From the creative economies to the tradition of making tied to manufacturing, the rich manifestation of cultural production is a hallmark of Detroit’s identity. This capstone aims to use cultural production as the primary driver of physical development in the city - postulating urban design as the unique medium with capacity to hold juxtapositions in a rich coexistence of opposite realities. Frameworks of agencies, spaces and initiatives capitalize on the UNESCO designation, working congruently to create a curatorial infrastructure for the city, allowing her reinvention in the eyes of both local and global publics.
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The project takes on the reality that Detroit is a city of enclaves with strong cultural flavors existing in pockets. By looking at these cultural geographies, along with other moments of confrontation, the project will operate through scalar, temporal, and programmatic strategies located at various moments of friction and exchange along various thresholds, taking inspiration from Detroit’s contemporary cultural production scene. In addition to imagining the spatial occupation of Detroit through cultural production, the project is a critique on the current conversation surrounding the designation, focused on “style-minded visitors”, Shinola, foodie-restaurants such as Gold-CashGold, and other amenities for an isolated public. While seen as a tool to encourage growth in the creative jobs market, the UNESCO designation is poised to obliterate the design it hopes to honor through cultural gentrification.
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culture // kul-chur the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group (Merriam Webster); manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively (Google dictionary); myths which remind a group of people what to do at a given time (Virgil)
cultural production // kulchrul pro-duk-shun a process dealing with how person(s) are produced as cultural beings and how this production of persons results in the (re) production of cultural formations (Kevin O’Connor); an intervention in the process of producing meaning (University of Salzburg)
curate // kyu-r-āt to select items from among a large number of possibilities for other people to consume and enjoy (Merriam Webster)
confrontation // kän-frun-tāshun friction between two opposites that simultaneously leads to collective, and maintains unique, identity ( as between material, program, history , occupation, etc.)
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FRAMING UNESCO’S ARRIVAL DESIGNING A GOVERNANCE OF CULTURAL ASSETS Understanding the IBA Emscher Park GOverance of Cultural Assets finding the missing links for longevity European Union
Beginning in 1989, the Ruhr Region of Germany has been working to narrate a new collective identity after decades of disinvestment and loss of industrial prowess and population. The International Building Exhibition (IBA) was a ten-year exhibition that set off a series of design initiatives, using innovative governance structures that worked collaboratively to reimagine the region’s active industrial landscape.
Emsherergenossenschaft
Ruhr Regional Assoc. (RVR)
Lippeverband
Local Gov’t Assoc. (KVR)
NordrheinWestfalia (NRW)
metropoleruhr (Econ. Dev.)
Ministry of Building, Housing, Urban Dev.
metabolon
IBA Emscher park Gmbh
(LLC - 1989-1999)
Project Ruhr (1999-2014) Regionale 2008-2010 Minister of Urban Planning RUHR.2010
route industriecultur
academics
Detroit
Ruhr Region
The effort is worth studying for its ability to curate this new narrative as a collective identity, with continuity spanning both geography and time.
Germany
IBA EMSCHER PARK Dortmund Phoenixsee
120 projects
private development
Naturalization of Emscher River Hausrecycling
infrastructural providers Duisburg Innerhafen
Oberhausen gasometer
Rheinpark + Tiger and Turtle
Wissenschaftspark
17 muncipalities
Reduce Reuse Recycle (exhibition space) Landschaftspark Nord
Bernepark
community groups
stadthauscultur Rheinelbe Forest Property DIY
Zollverein + Kokeri Citizens make the city
key:
Take the Initiative
governing agency
Build it Yourself
creative input
Home-Worker (refugee skills training)
creative output
proposed/needed
financial support
A web showing the governance structure that fosters a curation of cultural assets A-92
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:metabolon One example of the IBA’s accomplishments over time includes a biennale that rotated throughout the region’s various cities, the Regionale. Its goal was to continue to reimagine highly contentious industrial landscapes. One such project was :metabolon, a mono-functional landfill that successfully incorporated recycling, educational, and playscape uses, while remaining an active landfill. Source: Melia West
View of the ascent to the landfills apex
RUHR.2010 Another offshoot effort born of the IBA structure was the successful European Union ‘City of Culture’ designation that held festivities for an entire year - the first polycentric urban form to hold the title. Marketing and event planning efforts were aimed at continuing to reimagine the areas potential through design. One critique was that efforts were too globallyfocused. Source: http://www.modulorbeat.de/work/untitled/ruhrlights/ruhr2010/
RUHR.2010 event
Hausrecycling One public/private agency from the IBA was reinstated in 2011, the Stadtbaukultur, with the mission to advance the agency of architecture in the new collective imagination through various programs. One such program, Hausrecycling, brought awareness to the power of reappropriation through fundraising efforts, using recycled building material for small paperweight gifts. Source: www.stadtbaukultur-nrw.de
Small paperweight gifts made from abandoned structures in the Ruhr Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Fricticious Realities
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FINDING THE MISSING LINKS FOR LONGEVITY GOverance of Cultural Assets finding the missing links for longevity
vity
Taking inspiration from the Ruhr Region’s creative governance structure, a new cultural governance structure is imagined for the metropolitan region of Detroit for the deployment of a successful mechanism in a UNESCO designation. This governance not only seeks to identify needed agencies that are missing from the current political structure of the city and her cultural assets, but also seeks to address the region’s contentious relationship between city and suburb.
Emsherergenossenschaft
metropoleruhr (Econ. Dev.)
European Union
UNESCO Germany
Lippeverband
Ruhr Regional Assoc. (RVR)
MI Council for Arts + Cultural Affairs
Lippeverband
Philanthropy
Local Gov’t Assoc. (KVR)
metropoleruhr (Econ. Dev.) Metro City Matters Ministry of Building, Detroit InstituteHousing, of Urban Dev. Arts
Detroit Council of Art and Cultural Production
cultural practicioner
Detroit Public Schools art magnet high schools metabolon
IBA Emscher park Gmbh
(LLC - 1989-1999)
metabolon
Likewise, in order for a UNESCO City of Design to hold agency over actual change in the city, and not just be a tool of increased tourism, various programs and exhibitions must be created for the longevity of success in the continued making of Detroit.
Nat’l Endowment of Emsherergenossenthe Arts schaft Wayne / Macomb / Oakland Co.
City of Detroit NordrheinWestfalia (NRW)
Ministry of Building, Housing, Urban Dev.
t Ruhr -2014)
US Dept. of Arts + Culture
MOCAD Project Ruhr (1999-2014)
Detroit Creative Corridor (DC3)
Regionale 2008-2010
CITY OF DESIGN
Minister of Urban Planning
Regionale 2008-2010
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
RUHR.2010
route
academics
industriecultur 5 year
2 year
Detroit
route industriecultur
Ruhr Region Detroit
RUHR.2010
10 year
IBA EMSCHER PARK
PROMOTION THROUGH PROGRAM
CULTURAL CONSOLATES
DESIGN REGIONALE
Dortmund Phoenixsee
Dortmund Phoenixsee
120 projects
120 projects
private development
OPEN DESIGN COMPETITON
graphic + marketing push
Macomb Co. Hausrecycling
2 yr
Hausrecycling Duisburg Innerhafen
re-program liminal spaces Oberhausen gasometer
Rheinpark + Tiger and Turtle
Wissenschaftspark
17 muncipalities
Landschaftspark Nord
Rheinpark + Tiger D-sign and Turtle
Oakland Co.
2 yr
Reduce Reuse Recycle (exhibition Flint space)
2 yr
Landschaftspark Nord
Bernepark
community groups
stadthauscultur
Oberhausen gasometer
establish ambassadors
Reduce Reuse Recycle (exhibition space)
woodward faultline
Rheinelbe Forest
stadthauscultur route of Rheinelbe Forest industrial heritage
Rust Belt Property DIY
2 yr Property DIY
PROJECT GOALS Citizens Take the make the platform for conversion + Initiative city conversation
Zollverein + Kokeri
ded
Naturalization of “stadthauscultur” Emscher River
infrastructural providers
Naturalization of Emscher River
rg fen
Wayne Co.
2 yr
Home-Worker (refugee skills training)
key:
governing agency
Build it outlet for Yourself erased publics
creative input
Zollverein + Kokeri
joint transit
creative output
culture as driver of development
proposed/needed
hack the neoliberal city
pollution cleanup
stormwater/ cso treatment
financial support
financial support
A web showing the governance structure Detroit needs for longevity as a UNESCO City of Design
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newHome-Worker industrial (refugee /skills narrative training) repurpose
A CURATORIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
A disc jockey turntable as visual analogy of a curatorial infrastructure
While the designation of a UNESCO site is rooted in an expanded governance of cultural assets, ultimately, an entire curatorial infrastructure must be imagined for the multiple layers of complexity and opposite realities to have room to operate in the city.
The analogy of a disc jockey (DJ) turntable aids in imagining the possibilities of the city to hold multiple, not necessarily resonant, sounds in a productive overture of rich cultural production.
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Fricticious Realities
The DJ turntable designed above allows multiple publics to both, participate in the creation, and enjoyment of culture through a variety of scalar and temporal levels of production, as well as a range of design typology and intensity.
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CONVERSATION CONTINUUM This capstone is rooted and influenced by a series of design practitioners who see design as a powerful tool to further
curate contemporary culture, often in places where cultural production may be hidden or pushed to the margins.
Their practices offer sensitive control, and can be a tool to foster conversation about contemporary social realities.
Design as Curation to curate the cultural and social realities already present in plenitude through design, often through minimal addition
architectural pieces program Source: Melia West
O.N.E. Mile Project; North End, Detroit
landscape
political theory
planning
theatre
anya sirota
Source: www.modeldmedia.com
emboldens existing cultural production in Detroit; combines toil with fun A-96
Source: www.anyasirota.com
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Imaging Detroit project, Perrian Park, Detroit
thomas knünever reimagines delicate landscapes; multifunctional sites Source: Melia West
Source: Rapport sur Partir du Bidonville
Roma consulate; Peru Project, Paris
sebastien thiery designs with resources on ‘precarious’ urban margins; built a consulate for Roma population in Paris
Source: Melia West
Source: Melia West
Slide + trampoline :metabolon landfill, Engelskirchen, Germany
gilles clement curates the landscape mother nature provides; adds no new plant life
Source: www.iledenantes.com
Île de Nantes, France
alexandre chemetoff flexible masterplan for urban dynamics + participatory planning; reveals traces of industrial heritage
Source: www.tumblr.com
Source: https://studies-in-drama-brecht-1.wikispaces.com_ EPIC+theatre!_motherCourage
bertolt brecht
Source: www.thegreencloud.blogspot.com
theater as socially performative, often with minimal sets to discourage mere entertainment
Garden of Resistence Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Fricticious Realities
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DETROIT AS PALIMPSEST OF CULTURAL CONFRONTATION palimpsest of cultural confrontation
neu
cultural prosperity
Olayami Dabls acts as cultural ambassador
1990
George N’namdi cultivates African American art
Hip Hop and rap scene flourishes
Woodward Dream Cruise celebrates car culture every summer
Techno music scene born in Detroit
1960
Many festivals mark the Detroit calendar year Parliment Funk was born in Detroit’s Northend
Motown Records revolutionized the music scene
Martin Luther King Jr. march and ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in 1963
1930
First African American record label started on Grand Blvd.
The “Arsenal of Democracy” was the fabrication site in World War II Joe Lewis: heavyweight boxing champion
Second Great Migration in the 1940s offered employment and an escape from Jim Crow sharecropping
Albert Kahn’s architecture shaped the city
1900 John Lee Hooker brought Mississippi blues to Paradise Valley
Invention of Vernor’s ginger ale Belle Isle; the first American aquarium and was a favorite spot of leisure
Michigan economy prospered with the lumber trade
1800
Detroit known as the “Doorway to Freedom” in the Underground Railroad
Migration patterns in the Underground Railroad
Fur trader in the Michigan territory
1700 Detroit ‘The Strait’ was founded strategically at
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Detroit is a city whose history is punctuated by a variety of cultural inventions - many of which have forever shaped the American landscape.
However, it is a palimpsest of confrontation - of cultural prosperity and innovation as well as obliteration. This historical map stands as reminder
utral
of the possible threat the UNESCO designation could become to Detroit’s rebirth, and to the sustained cultural prosperity of the city’s residents.
cultural obliteration
Famous Brewster Homes before demolition - many geographies of cultural importance have been erased Residential water shut-offs occured throughout 2015
Deplorable conditions in Detroit Public Schools
Detroit’s police force was known for its brutality in black neighborhoods
Black Labor movement fought unfair wages and working conditions
1967 Race Riot reacting to police brutality, lack of housing and jobs
Razing of the middle-class Black Bottom neighborhood
largest tank
1943 Race Riot responding to competition of resources including leisure spaces
Exclusionary housing covenants made it illegal to sell a house to blacks Black Bottom was the only area southern blacks were allowed to live during the First Great Migration
FHA’s Redlining map
Blacks migrated to Detroit to escape the Jim Crow South
Slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries Fort Wayne
Image sources: ablogcalledwonk.com; http://arraytheday.com_dream-cruise; http://atlanticblackstar.com_Detroit-12-eohistory.com; http://bentley.umich.edu; http://blog.detroithistorical.org; commons. wikimedia.org; http://coxcorner.tripod.com; discoverynews.tumblr.com; http://experiencedetroit.com; findingeliza.com/st_antoine/blog; www.gettyimages.com; www.histroicdetroit.org; https:// detroitenvironment.lsa.umich.edu; www.detroitnews.com; www.michiganradio.org; www.mlive.com/dpsprotests; www.newsone.com/riot/real; http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu; www.nydailynews.com; www.starforts.com; http://stufffromthelab.wordpress_underground_railroad; www.tripadvior.com/hartplaza; www.voiceofdetroit.com; www. wikipedia.com; www.aotaradio.com; www.artifizz.com; www. businessinsider.com; www.dallyinthealley.com; www.detroitsgreatrebellion.com/Detroit/riot/1943; www.historicstructures.com; www.history.com_slave-ship-interior; www.hourdetroit.com; www.metrotimes. com; www.stcloudstate.edu_detroitido; www.thedailybeast.com; www. yelp.com/motownhistoricalmuseum
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WHEN THE SOCIAL IS PHYSICAL
As mentioned in the introduction, Detroit’s geography can be understood as a reality of racial and cultural enclaves. The physical city exists as a manifestation of social realities, often revealing decades of social injustices. Not only can the city be organized through social juxtapositions, but also through the mapping of cultural assets. Institutionalized cultural production and capital-driven projects operate as a conglomerate, existing almost exclusively in the 7.1 square miles of Downtown and Midtown.
key
key
0 to 4
african american
4 to 9
caucasian
9 to 15
asian
15 to 22
other
race
22 to 42
percent with a bachelor’s degree
key 0 to 20K 20 to 40K key
40 to 60K
cso outfall
60 to 100k
brownfield site
over 100K
average household income
reported dumping
soil and water pollution
key african american low percent bachelors degree below 40k income concentrated pollution
physical realities reflecting social injustices A-100
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Current Cultural Ambassadors
key
key
institution
creative economy
capital driven
design firm
creative economy
capital
key
key
grassroot effort
industrial
street art
architectural
grassroots lack of visible cultural resources
heritage cultural threshold
saturation of cultural resources
key grassroots capital
INSTITUTIONALIZED 1. DIA 2. Museum of Af Am 3. MOCAD 4. DSO 5. Detroit Opera 6. UD-Mercy 7. Wayne State 8. DCDC 9. Hilberry Theater 10. Schaver Music Recital Hall 11. Leonard Simons Bldg 12. Detroit Public Lib 13. Michigan Science Center 14. Cranbrook 15. UM Detroit Center 16. UM Design Center 17. MSU Detroit Center
18. Lawrence Tech Univ. 19. Lawrence Tech Univ. Detroit Studio 20. Cass Tech 21. Western Int’l HS 22. Detroit School of Arts 23. Fox Theatre 24. Center for Performing Arts
CREATIVE 1. Detroit Creative Corridor Center (DC3) 2. College for Creative Studies 3. Shinola 4. Center Galleries 5. Ponyride 6. Sugar Hills Art District 7. Salt + Cedar 8. 201 E Kirby St? 9. One Custom City 10. Ford Research + Innovation 11. GM Research Engineering Bldg 12. Detroit Labs 13. 71 POP 14.dPOP! 15. Model D 16. Signal Return 17. Detroit Lives! 18. Allied Media Projects 19. TechTown Detroit 20. Bizdom 21. Incite Focus, LC3 22. North End Studios 23. Heritage Works 24. OmniCorp Detroit 25. Detroit Artists Market 26. Russell Industrial Center
DESIGN FIRMS 27. ROSSETTI 28. Albert Kahn 29. SmithGroup JJR 30. Integrated Design Solutions 31. Inform Studio 32. McIntosh Poris Assoc. 33. Archive Design Studio 34. Gensler 35. HKS Architects 36. VolumeOne Design Studio 37. Neumann/Smith 38. AZD Assoc. 39. Studio Detroit 40. Hamilton Anderson 41. M1/DTW 42. City Form Detroit 43. Octane Design 44. Zoyes Creative Group 45. Basso Design Group 46. Skidmore Studio 47. Centric Design Studio 48. Patrick Thompson Design 49. Curve | Detroit 50. Building Hugger 51. Wedge Detroit
GRASSROOTS 1. Dabl’s Gallery 2. N’Namdi Center for Cont. Art 3. The Foundation 4. Living Arts 5. The Heidelberg Project 6. UFO Factory 7. Trinosophes 8. The Alley Project 9. The Carr Center 10. Cinema Detroit 11. Magic Stick 12. The Garden Theater 13. The Majestic Theater 14. The Scarab Club 15. Detroit Together Performing Arts 16. Plowshares Theatre Co. 17. PuppetArt Theatre 18. RideIt Sculpture Park 19. O.N.E. Mile Project 20. House Opera Gallerys 21. 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios 22. 13100 Klinger St? 23. Cass Corridor Commons 24. Garfield Lofts 25. West End Gallery (future)
ARCHITECTURAL 1. The Guardian Building 2. Fisher Building 3. Michigan Central Station 4. Tiger Stadium 5. Penobscot Building 6. Lafayette Park 7. Motown Museum 8. Palmer Apartments
creative economies heritage
thresholds in the city Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Fricticious Realities
FREE PRESS 35 BEST OF STREET ART
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CAPTIAL DRIVEN 25. Campius Martius 26. Detroit Experience Factory 27. M@dison Building 28. Ford Field 29. Comerica Park 30. Lil’Caesars Arena
INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE 9. Packard Plant 10. Ford Rouge Factory Tour 11. Henry Ford Museum 12. Ford Piquette Ave. Plant 13. Ford Plant 14. Cadillac Place 15. Chryster Plant 16. GM Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant 17. General Motors 18. Rouge Plant
CONFRONTATION TYPOLOGY: THRESHOLDS IN DETROIT
Based on the mapping of social and cultural realities in the city, a typology of thresholds can be developed that show the various conditions of frictions meeting and coexisting.
Source: geology.about.com/ ravine
Source: www.qz.com
Source: sciencebob.com_oilexperiment
It is these locations where a UNESCO curatorial infrastructure might operate to both accentuate already existing cultural production and to encourage promising energy in a City of Design.
Source: animallife.com/sponge
Ferndale
Grosse Pointe
Eight Mile Rd.
er R
Alt
Detroit
d.
Detroit
This in turn sets up a variety of sites that showcase the ability of urban design to simultaneously hold multiple realities in a rich coexistence.
River Rouge Park Dearborn
WALL
Source: www.nytimes.com
Lasalle Gardens
d an ay ail ighw r h sed d rai were lo
Source: Melia West
Source: http://belgeo.revues.org
Source: thoseotherfish.wordpress. com
Midtown Midtown/ TechTown
GAP
Downtown
POROUS
Source: Melia West
Source: Melia West
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Detroit
VESTIBULE
IMMISCIBLE
Source: www.motorcitymuckracker. com
Source: www.designsponge.com
Source: www.try2see.com
Source: Melia West
Source: http://conservationfund. org
TAXONOMY OF SPATIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR CULTURAL PRODUCTION
temporary occupation
gamescape
P
festival
‘lots’ of fun
potted plants
installation
rooftop
hvac ducts + pipes
facade
found objects
excess rightof-way
succession landscape
rail-to-trail
‘hot’ summer corners
community event
land marker
unsolicitated
commissioned
reappropriated artifacts
belly of raised rail
reclaimed voids
public or vacant lots
design practice
graphic
Image sources: Melia West; www.huffingtonpost.com;www.freepress.com; www.huduser.gov; www.chicagotribune.com; www.esrawe. com; www.onecustomcity.com; www.archfoundation.org; www.cathlynnewell.com; www.architectmagazine.com
Currently, a variety of tools are in play in Detroit for design and cultural production. To begin to visualize the various methods being used, while
showing additional methods, (drawing on precedent from the Ruhr Region), a taxonomy is developed that can be used to further curate and expand on design
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Fricticious Realities
in Detroit today. This can be used to further understand a variety of future projects in a UNESCO landscape.
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APPLICATION: REVEAL // AMPLIFY // CREATE
Through the layering offered by a governance infrastructure; theoretical grounding with contemporary practitioners of curation; the geographic realities of Detroit’s social and cultural production frameworks; and through an understanding of the various threshold typology and taxonomy of cultural production; a variety of sites can be located that begin to suggest the rich contemporary palimpsest of culture and design in the City of Detroit. This layering builds to a complexity
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that does not want to be simplified, for fear that the city will dilute itself and its inhabitants to fit into another place’s preconceived notions of a ‘City of Design’. It is precisely this richness that must be curated, adding opposite realities where appropriate, to further enrich each subsequent reality. These layered complexities will therefore generate, through the medium of urban design, the revelation of on-going cultural production, its amplification, and its creation over time.
Detroit Council of Art and Cultural Production
, cultural practicioner
Detroit Public Schools art magnet high schools
metabolon MOCAD Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Creative Corridor (DC3)
CITY OF DESIGN
Regionale 2008-2010
PROJECT MAP: LAYERING FOR COMPLEXITY Detroit
RUHR.2010
2 year
5 year
10 year
PROMOTION THROUGH PROGRAM
CULTURAL CONSOLATES
DESIGN REGIONALE
Dortmund Phoenixsee
OPEN DESIGN COMPETITON
graphic + marketing push
Wayne Co.
2 yr
“stadthauscultur” Macomb Co.
2 yr
Hausrecycling re-program liminal spaces
Oakland Co.
D-sign establish ambassadors
2 yr Flint
Reduce Reuse Recycle (exhibition space)
2 yr
stadthauscultur
woodward faultline
governance
route of industrial heritage
Rust Belt
2 yr
Property DIY
PROJECT GOALS
Home-Worker (refugee skills training)
platform for conversion + conversation
outlet for erased publics
joint transit
culture as driver of development
hack the neoliberal city
pollution cleanup
stormwater/ cso treatment
new industrial narrative / repurpose
threshold
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spatial opportunities
REVEAL
AMPLIFY
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Fricticious Realities
CREATE
A-105
REVEAL // STITCHING THE GAP
An intellectual segregation currently exists between the educational and cultural enclave present at Wayne State University and Midtown, crossing north to New Center’s creative economic boom. A physical gap created by a sunken highway and raised rail segregates a hub of street art and grassroots efforts to the west. Through the imagination of a three-layered city - under, through, up and over - various opportunities for occupation are imagined that literally invite a variety of publics to “suspend” preconceived notions as they traverse a highly curated landscape of immense talent in the city.
FRICTIONS
maintain opposition in event of cultural gentrification
creative economy // street art neo-liberal public // forgotten public local audience // global audience
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A
A series of frames and murals at varying intervals creates an exciting approach for visitors using Amtrak, building on the cultural legacy of Detroit
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An art installation uses playful motifs, lightscapes, and a climbable playscape to celebrate contemporary cultural production on the site of a current parking lot
C Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Fricticious Realities
A-107
AMPLIFY // INSTIGATION ALONG A ZIPPER
Detroit’s Midtown has long been home to the treasured Detroit Institute of Arts, along with other institutional forms of culture. This type and scale of culture often can be exclusive to the publics who are not able to afford access. A co-existence and inclusive urban design could be staged that utilizes publicly-owned parking lots for a series of temporary occupations that offer pop-up galleries, playscapes, and community gathering spots, providing access to cultural production by all publics in the City of Design.
FRICTIONS institutionalized // grassroots neo-liberal public // forgotten public large-scale // small-scale
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C
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B
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create wiggle room to include all publics
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A hopscotch race traverses a series of abandoned parking lots
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The temporary use of vacant parcels and an underused alley creates the perfect spot for an afternoon event
C A bench and bandstand are designed using reclaimed wood panels that can be disassembled for use at another site Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Fricticious Realities
A-109
CREATE // AN IMMISCIBLE LANDSCAPE
At the highly-symbolic border of Detroit with the suburbs, Eight Mile Road, a cultural consulate is imagined, where many publics can co-mingle, both having the desired space to curate their cultural production, while not feeling a need to give up any part of their identity, much like two immiscible liquids. The consulate could become the site of a 10-year Metro Detroit or Rust Belt Regionale, holding exhibitions on cultural agency in a UNESCO City of Design.
FRICTIONS black // white abandoned // reappropriation rich // poor
reprogram preconceived notions of ‘otherness’
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B
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A
Entrance to the Old State Fair Grounds after crossing Eight Mile Road
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Long-term, large-investment landscape design reimagines the use of the old State Fair Grounds creating a 30-foot landmark hill. An amphitheatre is dug into the hill, providing a place to tell stories of erased publics in Detroit.
C Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Fricticious Realities
A-111
CURATING THE UNESCO CITY OF DESIGN
IN CONCLUSION
A-112
In 2015, Detroit was designated a UNESCO City of Design, based on its cultural legacy and contemporary growth in the creative economy. While this growth and design excellence is well-worth celebrating and curating for its own accomplishments, it is imperative that a UNESCO designation broaden its understanding of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural production’; in order to give room to all of the various forms and publics that create in the culturally-complex city of Detroit. This broadened understanding must first, inform the curation of design and innovation in the city’s legacy - including the cultural wealth and social injustices that remain palpable in the physical realm. Second, this understanding of ‘design’ in the City of Detroit must inform a top-down approach to the curation of both capital-driven and grassroots efforts, never seeking to “institutionalize” the myths and design wisdom that make manifest a shared culture.
Volume I: DARE
The reality that UNESCO has a history of both “saving” cities and “obliterating” any healthy tissue for residents and tourists alike should be owned by those wishing to work on the designation. A careful consideration of Detroit’s layered complexity and juxtaposed publics must be understood in order for its existence as a City of Design to both grow the creative economy - the stated goal of the designation - and to improve the lives of Detroiters on a day-to-day level of access to the creation and enjoyment of cultural production. This needs to be handled on many levels of ‘design’, including the hidden structure of governance that can influence and shape the ability of design to drive the growth of Detroit through a sophisticated curatorial infrastructure.
www .H O P S C OTC HDETR OIT. co m
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Hopscotch Detroit is brought to you by the design team at Wedge Detroit, in collaboration with Imagine Detroit Together and in partnership with the Detroit Design Festival.
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heatre: Museum, Studio & Performance River Ave) pm, 9/21: 12pm - 5pm, 9/22: 1pm - 5pm, 4pm $3. Performances: $10 adults, $5 children
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Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Fricticious Realities
detroitdesignfestival.com to see the many ddf events not pictured on this map. Source: www.wedgedetroit.com
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Retailer: City Bird & NEST eld St) 9/19-9/22: 11am – 7pm
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Surveying Greatness: The Work of Corrado Parducci Adam Strohm Hall, Detroit Public Library Main Branch (5201 Woodward Ave) 9/19: 12pm – 8pm, 9/20 - 9/22: 10am - 6pm
WASHINGTON BLVD
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Yamasaki Building Tours McGregor Memorial Conference Center, Wayne State University (495 Ferry Mall) 9/20 - 9/21: 6:30pm & 8pm, 9/22: 9am & 10:30am RSVP: yamasaki.eventbrite.com
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a Lot of Space: A Project of Lots of ART! (NE Corner of Cass Ave & Canfield St) 9/19-9/22
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pm 9/23: 9am - 6pm
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Unorganized Beauty: Emerging Artist ption roject Gallery (42 Watson St) 6pm - 8pm
f Beauty: Round table Discussion 30, MSU Detroit Center (3408 Woodward pm
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the Highway: North Corktown Design ultipurpose Room, Michigan State etroit Center ( MSU ) ward Ave) 9am – 4pm s: $25, students: $15.
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miscuity: An Exhibition & Boutique Color, Design, Furniture and Pop Art ong-Sharp | Curis Gallery (1260 Library St) 0pm (Public Event)
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Source: Melia West
@ wedgedetroit # hopscotchdetroit www. hopscotchdetroit. com
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hopscotch Starting BLOCK (Campus Martius) Local artists will create beautiful murals around Cadillac Square. The starting point for a relay race. Starting point for a four-mile-long ultra hop!
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Hopscotch Headquarters & FINISH LINE (Gullen Mall in the heart of Wayne State Campus) Be a record setter and join Wedge for the world's longest hopscotch! Come see chalk murals painted by local artists. Create your own art with free chalk provided by Wedge and Chalkfly. Unleash your inner child during Recess hosted by Playworks complete with games and activities!
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A-113 Source: Melia West
BIND-ARY Zhe Zhang Administrative boundaries are political mechanisms that rule important economic and social codes on the land. The perimeter of the city of Detroit is an exemplary case of the agency of these lines shaping exclusionary policies and cultural constructions. Race, age, income and land occupancy, just a few layers, are enough to render this circumstance visible, and define a sharp divide. Together with these intangible walls, other physical barriers have been erected overtime. Accompanying the demographic divide along the boundary is the uneven distribution of public amenities on the two sides, and the overall disinvestment along the line.
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After decades of confrontational policies and attitudes, each side continues to use its own resources, and the line continues to sharpen the divide. Seeking to create opportunities to challenge the status quo, and ultimately stimulate social interaction between the two sides to erode both visible and invisible walls, Bind-ary maps moments of intense difference and striking similarity, to instill nodes of emergent urbanity with novel types of shared public services. Acknowledging the boundary, there is a frequently high flow in traffic, however it is barely ever inhabited; the growth of public amenities on the boundary will lead to a virtuous cycle of intense occupation.
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Bind-ary
A-115
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Mapping six main layers of demographic information along the city border - a quarter-mile width to both sides - reveals the intense contrast existing along the city administrative boundary. Among the three areas with highest degrees of contrast, represented by contrasting saturation, the border between Detroit and Grosse Pointe is the most notorious one. Here, a farmer’s market and plant pots were placed to block Detroiters from going into Grosse Pointe. Currently, different forms of barriers still exist along this section of the boundary.
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Bind-ary
A-117
QUESTIONING THE BOUNDARY CONDITION
N2-H V2-P / N2-H
Hidde Visual-Productive Homogeneity Hidden Difference
Cliff-Bare Ground
N1-C Access-Fence
A1-F
QUESTIONING THE BOUNDARY CONDITION
Visual-Mirrored Program
V1-M Modeling and mapping this section of the city administrative boundary reveals multiple layers embedded in the defining boundary. By applying several spontaneous strategies: Mirrored Neighborhoods, Cliff, Hidden Difference, and Productive Homogeneity, the discrepancy between the actual administrative boundary, the border, and perception boundary is revealed. While the main purpose of setting barriers on the border is to block access and visual accessibility to achieve a “safe” neighborhood for Grosse Pointers, there is a possibility that spatial design can challenge the current momentum of the alignment of “safety,” or living boundary, with the administration boundary. A-118
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Visual-Mirrored Program
V1-M
Visual-Mirrored Program
V1-M
Access-To Visual-M
A2-T/V1-M
Visual-One-Sided New Program
V3-O V2-P
Visual-Productive Homogeneity
V2-P
Visual-Productive Homogeneity
en Difference
V3-O PRODUCTIVE HOMOGENEITY V2-P
V2-P V2-P HIDDEN DIFFERENCE
N2-H
V2-P
V2-P
N1-C
N2-H
CLIFF
A1-F
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Topography Mirrored Program
V1-M
V1-M MIRRORED NEIGHBORHOODS A2-T
Boundary Width Adminstration Boundary Most Contrast Area
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Bind-ary
A-119
1/4 mi.
transportational
A-120 31
1/2 mi. 3/4 mi.
consumptive 1 mi.
dense
min.sim.age.30
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$$R $$S $S P
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PIXELATING
consumptive
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Calvin Ave.
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The project seeks to adhere the two sides by finding similarities between the detailed sectors along the boundary, in order to propose spaces to enhance interaction. Then, by mapping the boundary condition with the same demographic items, but with a more detailed censusing scale, the potential and reasonable use and program are identified along the five mile boundary.
BOUNDARY INVESTIGATIO
BOUNDARY INVESTIGATION
Traffic Flow Median Age
Playground / School
$R
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BRIDGING
INHAB
Income
Population Density
Income
Population Density
60 yr. 40 yr. 20 yr. 60 0 yr. 40 yr.
Age Difference
20 yr.
Age Inclusive Area
0 yr. Scripps St.
Essex Dr.
Scripps St.
Fairfax
Essex Dr.
Fairfax
St. Paul
Alter Rd.
E. Jefferson Ave. E. Jefferson Ave.
St. Paul
Vernor Hwy. Vernor Hwy.
Alter Rd.
Age Difference Age Inclusive Area
Income
Income Difference Income
$S $S
$R $R
$R
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$R
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$R
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Density Income Inclusive Area Traffic Flow
Density Highest Density Area
Transit Stations
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Income Inclusive Area R=Restaurant Traffic Flow S=Shop P=Public Services
Transit Stations
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R=Restaurant S=Shop Income Difference P=Public Services
4-1/4 mi.
4-1/2 mi.
4-3/4 mi.
Highest Density Area Location 4.94 mi. Location
3 mi.
max.sim.age.40 3-1/4 mi. 3-1/2 mi.
max.sim.age.40
3-3/4 mi.
4 mi.
4-1/4 mi.
PIXELATING
dense
PIXELATING
dense
BITING consumptive
BITING consumptive
4-1/2 mi.
4-3/4 mi.
4.94 mi.
max.sim.age.40
max.sim.age.40
INHABITING Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Bind-ary INHABITING
A-121
Pedestrian BridgePedestrian Bridge Multi-Purpose Pedestrian Multi-Purpose BridgePedestrian BridgeSkyway
Skyway
BRIDGING
B
Connection acrossConnection the boundary across withthe bou building, structure,building, and programs structure, and
Multi-Purpose Skyway Multi-Purpose Skyway Courtyard Bridge Courtyard Building Bridge Building Visual Bridge-Surveillance Visual Bridge-Surveillance
OPERATION PALETTE A taxonomy of potential interventions is developed with three main categories: bridging, inhabiting, and pixelating; seeking to connect, thicken and detour program and flow to create more opportunities for social interaction along the boundary. In later scenarios, multiple types of strategies here are applied to the same scenario, with different scales and additional landscape or architectural strategies.
A-122
Volume I: DARE
Paired Program Sport Shop+Field
Program - \ Paired Program - \ Paired Program - Paired Program Paired ProgramPaired Theater+Outdoor Cinema Theater+Outdoor Cinema Sport Shop+Field Restaurant+Beer Garden Restaurant+Beer Garden
INHABITING
INHA
Shared public serviceShared publi thickening and bluring thickening the and bl boundary b
Landscape Park
Landscape Park
Detoured Programming Detoured Programming Scattered Program in Scattered Park Program in Park
PIXELATING
PIXE
Creating exclaves to curate Creating exclaves interaction across theinteraction existing across the adminstrative boundary adminstrative b
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Bind-ary
A-123
Intervention Overview
Legend
Balduck M
emorial
Influence Area City Broader
Park 2,0 0 0,0 0 0
sqm
Proposed Landscape Proposed Structures
East Eng lish Villa Prepara ge tory Aca demy
Three scenarios with different contexts along the boundary are identified. Focusing on discussing different issues, these scenarios differ in location, scale, form and intensity of intervention.
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Scenario 2 A-124
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Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Bind-ary
A-125
Restaurant Studio
Retail
Skywalk
Scenario 1 : Catalytical School
Legend Influence Area City Broader Flow of Detroiters Flow of Grosse Pointers
View Relation
View Relation Proposed Landscape Proposed Structures
A-126
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Library
l / Restaurant Transit Station School
Scenario 1 discusses the issue of adhesive space for children and parents through education facilities, community level public amenities and public spaces. While the students along the border experience longer trips to the nearest school of their own city, a speculative school right on the city administrative boundary serves students from both cities, and provides opportunities for both young students to mix in school; parents have opportunities to communicate with each other as their children do. Community amenities and surrounding public space provide places for parents to stay after walking children to school. This also provides an Nine Urban Theses opportunity for Detroit: forBind-ary a class and racial A-127 mix.
Public Offices
Gallery Restaurant / Retail
Scenario 2 : 24 Hour Safe Zone
Legend Influence Area City Broader Flow of Detroiters Flow of Grosse Pointers View Relation Proposed Landscape Proposed Structures
View Relation
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Gallery
Hotel / Apartment
c Services
Late Night Stores
Skywalk
Cinema
Transit Station
Scenario 2 envisions a space filled with high density public amenities with 24 hour use, some of which are city level amenities, while also serving neighborhoods further away. As a satire to the current illusion and practice of creating a “safe� space by barriers on streets, this scenario uses programming to create eyes on the streets, creating safety by spontaneous surveillance. Therefore, programs are sometimes applied with the pixelating strategy, detoured and connected by skywalks, to create the relation of see and be seen. Forms of building volumes are still responding to the Nine Urban Theses administrative for Detroit:revenue-based Bind-ary logic. A-129
Restaurant
Scenario 3 : Banded Gardens
Legend Influence Area City Broader Flow of Detroiters Flow of Grosse Pointers Proposed Structures
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Scenario 3 imagines a new form of urban garden along the boundary. Instead of the conventional model that places needed urban gardens in Grosse Pointe and common urban farming gardens in Detroit, a striped and horizontally-stacked mixture of urban garden and community garden, with a continuous path across them, speculates on the possibility of making two types of gardens one and creating Nine Urban Theses communal for Detroit: spaceBind-ary for residents of A-131 both sides.
den Gar
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Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Bind-ary
A-133
AN ISLAND IN THE CITY Shao-Chen Lu
Looking back to the historical formation of downtown Detroit, there is a constant ambition to extend the economic and social energy to the surrounding region through the city’s radial pattern. The Rapid Transit System proposed in 1929 shaped this vision. Followed by the success of the automobile industry, downtown took on a different role – the representation of the ideal of the American Dream. The relationship and the distance between downtown and the area where downtown-workers lived changed dramatically, and a clear boundary emerged around downtown. Downtown Detroit detached itself to serve the daily influx of suburbanites working in the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) industries, rather than the surrounding area. Along with the highway system around the downtown, users and land owners trace a highly segregated downtown landscape that represents a divergence in social status, economic and even political power between downtown and the surrounding areas. Downtown became an island in the city.
A-134
CONCEPT This proposal focus on the enclavelike nature of downtown to create new islands for social activities along the different boundaries, and form a new network in the downtown. Since the automobile was the symbol of modern ideology, it became the tool to represent economic and political power; it also became the means to secure the territories. The objective of this proposal is to reveal the detached ideology from the idea of “the heart of the city” in downtown Detroit.
CONTEXT By showing the city’s economic and political power, downtown lost its social functions. Huge structures became the objects to show this power, and further became the boundary that isolated the downtown area. This project challenges this situation by mixing a social network into these mega-structures, and tries to find a new relationship between them.
Volume I: DARE
During the semester, the island-like situation of downtown Detroit was interrogated: What kinds of forces support and amplify the boundary condition that makes downtown operate as an island in the city? An initial study in the northwest corner of downtown revealed the role of the highway as a mechanism of exclusion capable of promoting extremely different statuses between its two sides.
Spatial Retaining Bars, Phoenix, Arizona, 1989, by Steven Holl. Retaining bars protect the desert landscape beyond the new urban edge imagined for Phoenix, as compared to uncontrolled sprawl.
Source: Book - Urbanisms: Working with Doubt
Traffic Study, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1952, by Louis I. Kahn For Kahn, the girdle of expressways and parking towers circling the city center metaphorically recalled the walls and towers that protected the medieval cities of Europe. Kahn’s specific comparison was to the largely medieval town of Carcassonne, in the South of France: just as Carcassonne was a city built for defense, Kahn envisioned the modern city center having to defend itself against the automobile. - Resource from MoMA Source: www.moma.org
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: An Island in the City
A-135
TOP INFLOW AREA
Scale: 1/80,000 High Income Area Top Workforce Inflow Area Down Town Detroit Highway
Top Inflow Area to downtown Detroit This maps shows that most of the people who work in the downtown area actually live outside of Detroit (suburbs), also reporting much higher income than people who live in the city.
When the automobile started to transform urban life, downtown Detroit detached itself from the city. Abandoning the representation of the “public�, it became progressively at the service of capital accumulation by the financial, insurance and real estate players. The highway system became the tool to maintain the isolated nature of downtown, yet its efficient connection with the suburbs. A-136
Volume I: DARE
POPULATION / TRAFFIC VOLUME
Scale: 1/60,000
High over 100K
50K
20K
10K
5K
Population Density
Medium 20K
1
Traffic Volume
Comparison Between Population Density and Traffic Volume Traffic volume remains stable even when it goes through low density areas, until it reaches the downtown area. The highway is the tool that maintains the connection with suburban areas, and the disconnection with the immediate surrounding neighborhoods.
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: An Island in the City
A-137
Downtown used to hold the seat for the public administration and the ground to exercise civic representation. Overtime, downtown Detroit transformed into mainly a privately-owned enclave. The highway became the tool to secure or extend the economic power of the new land owners.
A-138
Volume I: DARE
Detroit and the Representation of Capital Six owners actually possess almost half of the land downtown, with the highest value. By mapping their properties, we see their territorialization strategies. Downtown is the playground for these owners to create their own empire.
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: An Island in the City
A-139
THE WALL CITY
01 PLACE OF EXCHANGE
Site 01 Place of Exchange Ownership: MGM Grant Detroit LLC
This proposal represents the unique situation around downtown Detroit, by proposing a wall city around it. There are three formative elements to the wall: the programs that could represent the capital, the parking structure that could absorb all parking spaces from the downtown area, and the spaces that could be exchanged back to citizens when parking area in the downtown have been released.
Site 02 Place of Relax Ownership: Olympia Development of MI LLC Michael Ilitch
The public administration would sell the air rights over the highway to those big land owners to develop a perimeter wall around downtown. The big land owners and developers could use the wall to show their economic and political power. On the other hand, the city government would build a parking structure as the base of the wall, that would absorb all the parking spaces from the downtown area. The land owners would exchange their parking structures for public use. These mechanisms will free all roads in downtown. Each owner could adopt a new light rail line to serve their empire, and secure their territory, shaping a new downtown Detroit.
M LINE
Site 03 Place of Living Ownership: Greektown Casino LLC Dan Gilbert
By having a wall of parking inserted in the wall, new opportunities for appropriation of the downtown open up, with new potential publics and activities emerging in a new urban landscape.
Site 04 Place of Recreation Ownership: Riverfront Holding Inc. GM
A-140
I LINE
Volume I: DARE
Y D LINE
04 PLACE OF RECREATION
02 PLACE OF RELAX
03 PLACE OF LIVING
D LINE
G LINE
Detroit River Main Waterway
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: An Island in the City
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Hotel
This site is the most segregated site in the downtown area because of the huge junction near by it. However, MGM Grand Detroit is the casino with the highest revenue.
Food Truck Plaza
New Casino
By building a new extension of the casino and hotel on the proposed wall, an old parking structure could be re-purposed as Western Market.
Olympia Development of Michigan is the largest entertainment company in Detroit, owned by the Ilitch family. They own a large amount of land, used as surface parking, as they wait for new development prospects after they finish the new adjacent arena. Headquaters
Shopping Mall
Sports Park
Parking
By having a new chance to extend their development on the wall, the parking spaces could become the largest public space for citizen.
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Playground
School
Parking
Condo
Greektown Casino is the property owned by Dan Gilbert right next to the residential area, Lafayette Park. By proposing new deluxe condos on the wall with a large amount of parking, the adjacent school could use the open space and former parking structure as their playground and library.
Marina
Parking
Exhibition
GM owns almost all of the riverfront of downtown Detroit, but most of their land is being used as parking to support the need of their headquarters. By having a new exhibition center and even a private marina on the wall, including large parking structures on the wall, they could return the riverfront area back to public use, completing the riverwalk.
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THE CITY AND THE CITY Jonathan Hanna
Seeking a new means of representing the city, The City and the City takes the form of a short story told in the style of Magical Realism, utilizing the literary device of stream of consciousness. The narrative and subsequent work frame questions of urbanity through the lens of speed, altitude or lack there of, and perception. Many references were drawn from Jorge Borges, Julio Cortázar, Italo Calvino and China Miéville. In this case the idea is that, not only can a city be experienced by its people, but that a city too, can perceive and experience its people. We graft our ideas of a world onto our cities; this frames the way we look at and interact with them, and this varies widely from person to person.
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The project proposes a bike trail that follows along the Rouge River, anchored and structured by specific spaces of varying degrees of speed, altitude, and “cross-hatch” or in other words, the area in which one perceives as being a part of “Their City”. The Rouge River was selected as the site due to its inherent traits as a vector: it has a speed, and a direction, it offers some of the greatest topographical differentiation in the entire city, and spans a large area, passing through multiple municipalities, therefore structuring its own set of boundaries. The river was also chosen due to its conception in the public imagination as a polluted, industrial river. It can hardly be accessed due to its industrial nature, further mystifying it in the public imagination.
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Rocamadour, there are some things you need to know about this place, it’s not like Paris, now that you and your mom are here there are some things you should know. Detroit is a city within a city, or, a city outside of a city… uhhhh, you see it’s a bit confusing, it’s always changing, depending on who’s perceiving it, you might consider one portion of the city to be cross-hatched while to others that area is totally off limits. Equally as you perceive the city and determine its form in terms of cross-hatched and non cross-hatched areas, the city is perceiving you and represents itself accordingly. Originally there were two ways of getting around the city, the fast way, by automobile and the slow way, by foot. To the automobile driver, the city represents itself as if the skyscrapers and the streets are made up of paper and plastic, the city is a passive disposable container. And to the traveler commuting by foot the streets stretch into the infinity of the horizon, destination is perceptually unattainable. With inflated insurance costs, and falling wages due to the automation of labor, accessibility to the automobile has declined. And with the constant outward force of suburbanization walking has become unfeasible. This is why the bike has become the preferred mode of transportation. With the city having been developed for the car and walking having been around since the dawn of civilization, the city knows how to represent itself to these groups. This is not true for the bicyclist, both the perception of the individual towards the city and the perception of the city towards the individual are being challenged. Cyclists are perceiving completely new cross-hatched areas. But, the city has yet to figure out how to represent itself to the cyclist and in the meantime the city is in a constant glitch. You know, I still remember when I got my first bike, it was white with red stripes. I clipped my Ken Griffey Jr. card to a spoke on the back tire. I used to sneak out and ride my bike to the salt mounds down on the Rouge River. I never crossed that river when I was young. You see, it wasn’t cross-hatched back then. A dangerous place for a kid like me, now I stayed on my side of the line. I would watch the plume smoke and the hellfire reaching towards the sky on Zug Island and the rest of Carbon Works. But those days are gone and I’m not one for reminiscing. Today, both sides of the river are cross-hatched in certain places. Hell, today we even recognize each other’s humanity, I guess that’s because
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we all lost a lot when the plants moved to full automation. But there’s still some places I wouldn’t venture, too much pollution, not enough cross-hatch. There was an attempt by the cities to expand the cross-hatch by linking the cities with a new connection, utilizing the very thing that anchored the non cross hatched boundaries, the Rouge. They implemented a continuous bike lane connecting the existing network in the Rouge Park down through Dearborn, and straddling the river through Carbon Works. They called it the Industrial Heritage Trail, a cheesy attempt at bringing commonality to non cross-hatched and cross-hatched areas. Anchored to the bike trails are the old industrial sites converted into event spaces, parks, museums and other public amenities and the like. Actually, I’ve heard about it “Rocamadour replied” Let’s give the trail a go I said, I’ll use last month’s federal stipend to buy two bikes, one for me and one for you. We started our ride at the Rouge Park but there is no prescribed beginning or end to the trail as the concept of destination was lost with the production jobs. No work, no where to be, no destination. Time becomes malleable when no one is paying you for it. And on this day we’ll spend it experiencing the glitch of the city on our bikes. Rocamadour raced ahead much younger and more agile than myself, he zipped back and forth along the gravel paths. Rocamadour had no sense of the non cross-hatched boundary yet, it didn’t affect him anyways, he’s Parisian and the non crosshatched folks wouldn’t know him from Adam. “Slow Down Roco” I yelled, “stay within my site, you don’t want to be thrown off course by the glitch do you?”. “I’m going ahead, you’re too slow” he yelled back. “Meet me at the Bike Shop at U of M.” I replied. I knew I could cut through the campus and beat him there by a few minutes. When I got to the shop I bought two Gatorade and a patch kit just in case, I waited there for Rocamadour watching some kids from the college rent some bikes, I wonder if the glitch is holding him up, I wonder if he knows where he’s going? He probably took a shortcut Rocamadour thought to himself as he took a break assuming his step dad wasn’t far behind, I better speed up, there’s something strange about this neighborhood but
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I can’t put my finger on it, that’s probably why he didn’t come this way. I got to the bike shop, he was waiting there with a Gatorade for me and a patch kit. The next portion is channelized, all concrete, and flat straightaways. You should be able to keep up. We made our way through the channel, and that’s when the glitch happened. Everything shifted, the road was on the channel, and a car was barreling towards us. The driver spun the car around with the frenzy of a dog trying to bite its own tail. It rolled over into a muddy ditch with its wheels in the air, the driver got out of the car unharmed, We rode by shaking our fists, wobbling like two equally convincing yet contradictory arguments. He almost killed us. “Gulp down the nourishing sludge which flows from the factories that produced your precious car, you bourgeoisie scum.” When we reach the end of the channelized portion we gotta cross the bridge to get to Marathon Park I said. “You mean the one in oakwood heights” my step-dad said. Yea I guess, I mean it stretches from the old salt mine across the river to Forman Park. He seemed anxious to cut through Oakwood Heights but I couldn’t tell why, must be one of those “non cross-hatched” areas. After the full automation the refinery and salt mine consolidated their footprints and sold the remaining land and buildings to the city for a symbolic 1 dollar to create a new industrial park. I can see the pillar of salt in the distance, we must be close. Well, relatively at least. I mean it is 100 feet taller than the Eiffel Tower. It’s the depth of the decommissioned Mine shaft. My dad raced through the park as quick as he could, I was kind of annoyed, I wanted to climb to the top of the pillar to get a different view of the city they have an observation deck in the pyramid of the obelisk. “Hurry up I want to show you the new bridge he yelled”. I stopped and picked up a deck of baseball cards, clipped one to the spoke of my back tire, and rode down to the salt mounds across the Jefferson Bridge. You know, this is my first bike, it’s white with red stripes. I couldn’t come to recross that bride you see, it wasn’t cross-hatched. A dangerous place for a kid like me, now I’ll stay on my side of the line and watch the plume smoke and the hellfire reaching towards the sky on Zug Island and the rest of Carbon Works.
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001_ Model depicting the new bike kiosk, and rental shop at the University of Michigan Dearborn, This intervention is working on issues of horizontality, and the guidance of direction.
002_ Model depicting the channelized portion of the river dividing the cities of Dearborn and Melvindale, This intervention is working on issues of speed, the role that chance plays in ones life. FOCUS 1
FOC
PEDESTRIAN AND BIKE BRIDGE-ROUGE PARK
7.2 M 11.6 MELVINDALE/DEARBORN BORDERTHE CHANNEL
THE CHANNEL
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - DEARBORN
ROUGE PARK
4 MI 6.4 KM
BEGINING OF THE CHANNEL
001
002
NON-CROSS HATCHED AREA 1
NON-CROSS HATCHED AREA 2
STRANGE NEIGHBORHOOD
THE CHANNEL BIKE RENTAL AND KIOSK
PEDESTRIAN AND BIKE BRIDGE U OF M DEARBORN
NON-CROSS HATCHED AREA 3
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003_ Model depicting the pillar of salt on the converted salt mine. This intervention is working on altitude and non-motion. 004_ Model depicting the new Jefferson Bridge. This intervention is working and designing for a known future problem, load, or misuse of a system.
FOCUS 3
FOCUS 4
MI KM
9 MI 14.5 KM
10.5 MI 16.9 KM
MARATHON PARK
CUS 2
MARATHON PARK PARK VIEW FROM FORMAN PARK
NON-CROSS HATCHED AREA 4
003
004
SALT MOUNDS
SHORT CUT BRIDGE TOWER
SALT MOUNDS
JEFFERSON BRIDGE
SCHAEFER BRIDGE
MARATHON PARK NEW JEFFERSON BRIDGE
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EXPRESSCAPE Travis Crabtree
What is the role of the expressway today in Detroit’s post-industrial and post-modernization setting? It is a peculiar era of the phenomena of infrastructural failure proliferating, while global trade is increasingly using the highway armatures more than ever. This project questions what urbanism can the highway take on to become a more suitable frontier for the city. What will Detroit’s highways will like in 20 or 30 years? Will we continue to double down on investing in rebuilding the same utilitarian conduits forever? Or could the highway hold multipurpose
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thresholds for political, economic, environmental gains, and invert their traditional spatial perception. This project uses that approach to reimage two moments within the highway. One section of the expressway spatializes international trade transactions, while another portion explores a vision for what an expressway could become after it is decommissioned. Instead of traditional methods of complete removal of the highway artifact, this project uses methods of splicing, hijacking, and hybridizing infrastructure to form a new typology for a future expressway synthesis.
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rivers
expresscape
+ Simultaneous Urbanisms: 9 Site Studies
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3
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globalizatio
86,233
DULUTH
193,792
GRAND RAPIDS
2.7 M
CHICAGO
594,883
MILWAUKEE
205,520
GREEN BAY
400,070
MINNEAPOLIS 1951 iron ore mines 19th c. coal movement 19th c. grain movement
21th c. passenger rail 21th c. freight rail 21th c. highway network
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822,553
COLUMBUS
297,517
CINCINNATI
287,128
TOLEDO
594,833
INDIANAPOLIS 1951 iron ore movement
Nine Urban Theses for Detroit: Expresscape
water
258,959
ROCHESTER
1.7 M
PITTSBURGH
258,959
BUFFALO
390,113
CLEVELAND
2.6 M
TORONTO
710,000
DETROIT
highways
Before the 20th century the Great Lakes megaregion used its waterways as the conduit for trade and transportation. Today the amount that water is used for travel has severely reduced. Modernization has replaced water as the means of travel by introducing concrete rivers throughout the Great Lakes landscape.
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In Detroit, the highways are the rivers. The highway is now performing the function that the Great Lakes waterway did two centuries ago. The conduits are for moving people, goods, and capital. Since Detroit is a virtually flat terrain the highways are also acting as the deepest points within the city. This can be realized during a heavy rain when the highways literally transform into rivers of water.
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+ 350 - 375
+ 330 - 350
[ l - 94 ] [ l - 75 ]
[ hwy 10 ]
highways as
rivers
+ 315 - 330
[ l - 96 ]
[ l - 94 ]
[ l - 75 ]
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[Interpretations]
This set of illustrations are documenting the complexity of the highway layers. Specific issues include landscape performance, environmental justice, and spatial configurations. Each speculative drawing uses tactile and objective data research to better break down the ingredients that make up these armatures in the city.
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0 mph 30 20 10 40
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accelerated
perspective
50 60 70 76
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the suburban bump
the suburban bump ll
median sucession
crossroads
grass knoll
raised conduits
median flow
double frontage
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interchange straight bend
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toxicity
neighborhood
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infrastructure hijacking
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EXPRESSCAPE Volume I: DARE
38.1
40.2
43
42.19° N, 83.36° W
Frain Lake
42.28° N, 83.74° W
Dixboro
42.28° N, 83.74° W
Ann Arbor
42.28° N, 83.22° W
Plymouth
+
26.3
42.22° N, 83.19° W
Livonia
+
18.3
ips
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[ I - 96 ]
42.51° N, 83.04° W
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0.8
42.43° N, 83.10° W
city proper
limit
int
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ffic
cs int.
11.2
42.43° N, 83.13° W
Dearborn Heignts
do r
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in
expresscape
exurban commerical flows
m
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industrial logisti
16.4
+
o etr
.
impressions
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floodscape
+ 640.00
city groundtruth
600.00
avg. depth
- 582.00
deepest elevation
- 574.00
utilitarian
typical extrusion
airscape - .01 PM - .01 - 1 T/Y PM 1 T/Y PM diesel emission concentration gasoline emission concentration trucking activity
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trafficscape
1700s
1863
1863
1910
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1923
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1935
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+ + + + + + ++
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EXPRESSCAPE Volume I: DARE
frequent traffic jamming trucking clustering
20 th c e n t u r y m o d e s o f t r a n s p o r t
+
40,000 - 120,000
8 MI
complex
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
apparatus
NEW CENTER
+
This map illustrates the complexity between the expressway and the central part of Detroit. In most situations, the highway is a divisive instrument separating neighborhoods from the central spine of the city. It could be seen as a hierarchical device that concentrates economic prosperity, while the outer edges decline. This diagram locates the economic and physical attributes of the city while overlaying traffic volumes and air pollution intensities to locate three viable locations for extensions. The site areas provide opportunities to deal with highway decommissioning, spatializing global logistics, and bridging economic flows.
1 mi
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[city]
ONTARIO, CA
ext. [econ]
[log]
ext.
SOUTHWEST DETROIT [ DELRAY]
LAFAYETTE PARK
+
MULTI - FAMILY HOUSING
1 mi
extension logistics
logistics extension
tri-modal intersection
international logistics center
The Logistics Extension is a landscape for machine synchronization and orchestration. The site amplifies transnational trade by making it easier for all modes of transport to intersect one another. The primary modes of transport include rail, ship, truck, and drone. The main artifact is a megastructure designed for containment. Some containment items include air pollution, shipped materials, and is a post for traveling employees to stay.
loading zone
underground parking
international processing
exporting station
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trucking + frieght bridge
water conduit
Ambassdor bridge
international border
high speed passenger rail
ecological performance zone
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container rail yard
Ontario port
western freeways
site location
city center
ship
industry
rail
network A-176
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road
ground
structures
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Amazon headquarter office drone loading area + flight deck
cargo holding + loading dock vertical loading station co2 algae filter
mexicantown connection high speed passenger rail trucker lodging + amenities
vertical loading station AV charging + parking AV cargo fleet geothermal heating
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city extension The City Extension takes an area with low traffic volumes to play out the scenario of a decommissioned expressway. Instead of extracting the entire infrastructure and erasing what was there, the highway is kept to be the central artifact within the landscape. Three rooms are created along the conduit. The Spectacle room essentially frames the highway as an object and gives the public opportunity to think about the larger question of the highway conceptually. The Playroom uses the Olmsteadian style garden block concept on the residential side of the highway and reappropriates the unfinished prison on the downtown side to be an architectural folly. The Development room extends the building density of downtown, while leaving the other side to be a successional forest.
development
w in do w sc
spectacle
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th ea tr e en
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play
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housing
playground
theater
hostel
entertainment
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garden
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[ spectacle room ] [ play room ] [ development room ]
l - 75
l - 375
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economy extension The Economy Extension is an overlaid urban multi-modal transportation development bridging the economic centers in Detroit. The new Redwings sports complex and the development boom in Midtown has created the opportune moment to be connected downtown investments. The upper platform is designed for civic gatherings and directing flows of people from one side to the other. The intervention acts as a stationing point for the new M1 light rail, city bicycles, BRT, and the metropolitan high-speed rail.
baseball plaza
midtown
downtown
the station hockey plaza the platform the wall
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lti
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m
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a od
ter
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c sit
mx
ev
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s du
nt
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p elo
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pla
rm
tfo
la ap
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n
tio
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o sp
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[ HWY 75 ] Little Caesars Arena [ multi model center ] Comerica park
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Ford field
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AUTHORS Manasvi Bachhav holds a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Sir J.J. College of ArchitectureUniversity of Mumbai, India. She is interested in exploring the potentials of Architecture within the temporality of the urban context through multiscalar interventions.
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Travis Crabtree holds a degree in Landscape Architecture from Mississippi State University. His research focuses on productive landscapes as a formative element within distressed urban conditions.
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Jonathan Hanna is a graduate of the University of Michigan Bachelor’s of Science in Architecture program. Born and raised in Detroit, he participates in the rich tradition of making in the region, and plans on working and living in the city after graduation.
Mengyu Jiang holds a degree in Architecture from South China University of Technology. She is interested in the design of inclusive communities, and the possibilities around new forms of urban governance.
Shao-Chen Lu holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Taiwan. His research focuses on the relationship between architecture and urban space. Post-graduation, he plans to keep working on projects that interrogate the role of architecture in the reconfiguration of urban settings.
Nishant Mittal holds a degree in Architecture from the Maharaja Sayajirao University Baroda in India. Interested in the agency of institutions and new forms of governance in the transformation of the distressed central city, he plans to stay in Detroit after graduation to practice as an urban designer.
Luneoufall Vital Gallego holds a degree in Architecture from Texas Tech University and is also pursuing a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan, starting in Fall 2016. Her interest explores the limits between interpretation and design as agents for speculative futures.
Melia West holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame, with a concentration in Historic Preservation. With experience in corridor design plans, and walkable neighborhoods, she is committed to fostering a sense of place by building on existing assets and community initiatives.
Authors' Biographies
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Zhe Zhang holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Suzhou University of Science and Technology. Interested in Asian cities with high density, he is returning to China to practice as urban designer and architect, also doing research on the relationship between urban culture and urban form in Jiangnan cities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Craig Borum
Harley Etienne
Professor of Architecture University of Michigan Principal, PLY Architecture
Assistant Professor, Urban and Regional Planning University of Michigan
Scott Campbell
Robert Fishman
Associate Professor, Urban and Regional Planning University of Michigan
Interim Dean and Professor, Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning University of Michigan
McClain Clutter
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Associate Professor of Architecture University of Michigan Principal, Master of None
Sharon Haar
Margaret Dewar
Erik Herrmann
Professor, Urban and Regional Planning University of Michigan
Taubman College Fellow in Architecture University of Michigan
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Chair and Professor of Architecture University of Michigan
Thomas Knünever
Claire Leavengood-Boxer
Virginia Stanard
Principal Knüvener Architekturlandschaft Local partner in the Ruhr
Master of Architecture Graduate, 2016 University of Michigan
Jeffrey Kruth
Jen Maigret
Assistant Professor of Architecture & Director, Master of Community Development Program University of Detroit Mercy Partner, City Form Detroit
Senior Urban Designer Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative Kent State University
Associate Professor of Architecture University of Michigan Partner, MAde Studio
Larissa Larsen Associate Professor, Urban and Regional Planning and SNRE University of Michigan
Julia Sattler T U Dortmund Fakultät Kulturwissenschaften Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Ana María León
Anya Sirota
Assistant Professor, College of Literature Science, Art History and Department of Romance Languages and Literature
Assistant Professor of Architecture University of Michigan Partner, Akoaki
Acknowledgements
Geoffrey Thün Associate Dean for Research and Creative Practice, Associate Professor University of Michigan Principal, RVTR Sean Vance Assistant Professor of Architecture University of Michigan Principal of Sean Vance Architecture
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TAUBMAN COLLEGE architecture + urban planning
University of Michigan Master of Urban Design
2015-2016 Š The Regents of the University of Michigan All rights reserved A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning 2000 Bonisteel Boulevard Ann Arbor 48109 www.taubmancollege.umich.edu