Motor City Morphologies by Stephanie Yeow

Motor City Morphologies

Transect: n. a straight line or narrow section through an object or natural feature or across the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surface, along which observations are made or measurements taken. Despite prevailing images of Detroitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blight and decay, the city is not a homogeneous, static field in a continuous state of depression. Rather, it is a multi-layered network in which outcroppings of vibrancy, expressed in the built environment, co-exist with conditions of dissolution. This book takes a transect through the center of Detroitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Midtown area, discerning morphological ecologies and their corresponding species of buildings and infrastructures. Within this area, encompassing the blocks along Cass, Woodward, and John R, we identify four ecologies, initially defined by prevailing ground conditions. These are Rivers, Savannah, Impermea-Plain, and Archipelago. Each of these is colonized by a variety of built objects, their shape and arrangement conditioned by institutional and social forces. The experience of each ecology is distinct, and directly related to the built environment. The ecologies and their corresponding species form a network, host to the vibrancy and decay of the physical environment.

Table of Contents

Mapping 8/11

Rivers 12/17

Savannah 18/23

Impermea-plain 24/29

Archipelago 30/35

Streets 38

Greater Downtown Detroit 9

Archipelago

Impermea-plain

Savannah

Rivers

Figure / Ground

Morphologies 11

Rivers 12/17

The Rivers are an ecology networked throughout and around the midtown region,isolating it from the surrounding city. Within the area of investigation, it forms deep rifts and a dramatic geography, marking barriers while also bleeding into adjacent ecologies. Its depth and slope corresponds to its surroundings, classified into a number of formations.

The ecology protrudes into the adjacent Savannah, forming an alluvial floodplain colonized by “Heat Islands” at which point cars may stop, marking a steady erosion of stillness into this neighboring ecology. Additional infrastructural species include “Trenches,” “Carriers,” “Bipedal Valves,” and “Sedimentary Byways.”

Certain building species also colonize the Rivers— “Blocks,” which originated in other ecologies, but which form the perimeter of the Rivers; and “Skeletons,” also abundant throughout the ImpermeaPlain, large parking infrastructures through which the automotive flow of the Rivers washes.

Treanches

Solos

Carriers

Solos

Sedimentary Byways

Solos

Bipedal Valves

Solos

Heat Islands

Solos

Skeletons Heat Islands Carriers Bipedal Valves Sedimentary Byways Trenches

Savannah 18/23

The Savannah is abandoned grassland in a state of transition— overgrown and low-density, with buildings dispersed throughout. Because of the large amount of empty space, the species are classified in relation to the space of the ground they inhabit. In response to the low-density and stand-alone quality of the buildings,

what becomes legible is their size in relation to one another, as well as the density of their distribution. The ecology is in a state of erosion as (1) a field with continually dissolving fabric and (2) an entire object undergoing fission, being split in two by the forces to the north and south, magnetized by

the corridor of Woodward Ave, which constitutes a distinct region within the Savanna. Within this dissolved organization are a diversity of building types, land, and distribution—“Biggies,” “Flatlanders,” occupy the same barren field as the ornate “Relics” and the organized structure of the “Serial Boxes.”

Solos

Villages

Solos

Flat Landers

Solos

Biggies

Solos

Relics

Solos

Relics Biggies Flat Landers Meadows Villages Solos Heat Islands

Impermea-plain 24/29

Impermea-Plain is a landscape of sun-baked and winterworn asphalt, shaped by two opposing forces—the tendency towards huge collectivity on the one hand, and suburban individuality, structured by nuclear families, on the other. Market forces and the institutional Archipelago to the north have made Impermea-plain a popular destination for human inhabitants,

who populate the various “Outposts,”newly built “Turrets,” and remnants of previous eras, “Relics.” The tendency towards bigness occasionally sprouts “Skeletons” within the fabric of parking lots, spiraling concrete structures extending the trajectory of cars to their resting place several stories above the ground level. From these, inhabitants visit the various institutions,

in the nearby Archipelago. The various surface lots, or “Heat Islands,” which accommodate visitors to the ecology on the ground, on the other hand, have deteriorated the first system of the American dream, warping its grid and linear organization to produce “Clusters,” building formations of varying height and material, like the aggregated materials comprising the concrete that sustained this ecology’s development.

Clusters

Solos

Skeletons

Solos

Turrets

Solos

Relics

Solos

Outposts

Solos

Turrets Clusters Outposts Relics

Skeletons Heat Islands

Archipelago 30/35

The richest of the four ecologies is the Archipelago, forming a sanctuary shaped by large-scale institutional investment in the area. It contains two primary forms of organization—(1) “Temples,” “Ingressors,” and “Grazers”—large, stand-alone monolithic structures in the ecology’s center, and (2) “Aggregates” and “Villages”— smaller scattered species at the

fringes. Underlying these two species is the ground—in much part lush and manicured, feeding off the richness and vibrancy of the ecology’s culture and controlled by forces of authority. The urban morphology is one of varying scale and density. At all edges of the ecology, the species are vulnerable to cross-pollination

with species from the adjacent ecologies. Smaller accesses on the north and south sides attest to the ecology’s permeability. The mass and dispersal of the species, particularly the island-like “Temples,” keep the Archipelago intact, preventing infiltration of decay from the surrounding regions.

Skeletons

Solos

Villages

Solos

Grazers

Solos

Ingressors

Solos

Temples

Solos

Grazers Villages Ingressors Temples

Skeletons Heat Islands

Postscript

It is no secret that Detroit is plagued with blight and decay, especially near the urban core. This has been a well-documented topic in the news surrounding the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bankruptcy process. However, when one looks closer and examines the neighborhoods of Detroit one may be surprised at the vibrancy that remains in certain areas. The work in this book seeks to arrive at an understanding of Detroitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s midtown by framing its urban ecology and categorizing the species that inhabit it. Motor City Morphologies introduces its readers to the growth aand burgeoning life here, an area rife with potential for a vaariety of possible modes of inhabitation.

University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning arch552

| Networks Studio | Fall 2014 Kathy Velikov