Bottom-Up Detroit

Grant:

Lecturers' Professional Development Fund (LPDF)

Academic Year:

2014 - 2015 (June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015)

Funding Requested:

$2,000.00

Project Dates:

Mon, 12/01/2014 - Thu, 04/30/2015

Applicant(s):

anmorcil

Overview of the Project:

"Bottom-up Detroit" is a proposal which seeks support for research on small-scale, small-budget, and light-infrastructure urban projects in Detroit. The project evolved to the idea of "Placeholders" and the exploration of alternative uses of Detroit's available space through interventions that hold, denote or reserve a space for public use. The work has been developed in an exhibition titled "Place-holders" which have brought a different reading of Detroit's urban density through the analysis of eleven initiatives in the city which negotiate the unique spatial condition between the citizen demands and municipal regulations. The funding have provided an opportunity to visit, document, and analyze projects which are based on the urgency of solving the continual problem of open space in Detroit. The study is of importance to my own research and pedagogical ambitions.

Final Report Fields

Project Objectives:

Objectively selection of the eleven "place-holders" based on three parameters: -Geographic diversification: Projects whose locations reflect a broad spectrum of the city - Overlap public-private: Projects where an overlap occurs between public ownership, regulations and private uses, interests, and land ownerships creating spaces for public activity. - Alternative uses of available space: Projects which incorporate programmatic requirements not only driven by economic priorities but by the need to resolve space deficits for education, recreation, contemplation, nutrition and communication.

Project Achievements:

The compiled documentation pretends to bring to light an understanding of the spatial strategies, evolution and complex roots of a total of eleven projects in the city of Detroit. The documentation resulted from this research have generated new course material to use in a graduate design studio which a taught in the fall semester of 2014 and in an undergraduate design studio that I am currently teaching in the winter semester of 2015 at Taubman College School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Continuation:

I am planning to continue the project in two directions: - First, move the "Place-holders" work to one gallery in Detroit with the intention that my research is able to be reached by the maximum number of Detroiters. - Second, continue with the research of the public space in the city of Detroit through my Phd dissertation and a future research in the city during the following academic year 2015-2016.

Dissemination:

The research is part of an exhibition titled "Placeholders" at the gallery space of Taubman College School of Architecture and Urban Planning from 25th March to 28th April of 2015. Moreover, the results of the work is shared in a publication titled "Place-holders" in the format of a newspaper which is free for students and faculty in the gallery space.

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