Zoned

With my project I am looking into the near future of Detroit.  They currently have a draft plan of a new zoning map for the center of the city.  I am targeting the zones which are marked for medium to high levels of density including some industrial, mixed-use, live-make and "innovation" productive and ecological.  I am choosing these zones for their proximity to both the city center and the water front.  The interventions will work best if they are already placed in areas with pedestrian circulation and high density.  I do want to look into other areas where the interventions will act as a catalyst for the area increasing density rather than relying on existing activity.

Codes and regulations are rougher to figure out.  Detroit follows the 2012 IBC and all the codes which fall under the ICC with a Michigan amendments including the Michigan Construction Code.  Where my project falls is a blurry line as it may not be a fully enclosed building that would have to abide by all the typical codes.  However the general construction must follow the IBC including foundation depths, proper snow load accommodation etc.  Aside from that genre of code and accessibility requirements there are few regulations that would apply.

The Place

In my previous post I decided to use Detroit.  For me this step seemed logical in that I wanted to do a project that was the seed to good spaces and urban growth.  Detroit needs help.  The city lost its major industry and a huge amount of its population.  While the jump to  memorial/future was a bit out of character of my previous ideas I still think that Detroit is a viable option for my project.  My driving forces have been, urban, creation, and connections.  I believe that placing my project in Detroit opens up the opportunity to reinvigorate the city as a whole and possible look to the future where Detroit finds its new industry and redevelops as people begin to flock back to the city.

Perhaps that is what my thesis becomes.  An architectural narrative of the decline and reinvention of Detroit.  How can I bring a new architecture and utilize it so that it will ignite the city into what it could become post-automobiles?  I will need to begin by analyzing Detroit while it was a flourishing city to its current state as well as contrast it with other cities to determine how its fabric is alter based on its former industry.   Just from examining it through Google Earth it is clear to see the many holes left by vast parking lots.  What can be done to go through the city with a finer grain and create a cityscape that is for the human scale?

The project could take the form of a detailed research and eventual intervention. The project could be a master plan paired with a few key buildings or a series of smaller follies that are woven into the city.  I think that by creating something which engages with people it will aid in opening the city up to pedestrians.

What is it?

It has been a tough road to find my thesis thus far, but as the days go on my ideas are coming more into focus and details are falling into place.  I am not completely certain of my project but I am certain of the key elements.

• I want to place my project in Detroit in the semi-distant future.
• The underlying theme is based in lost cities
• The project will be some sort of memorial, museum, renewal
• The project will be a sort of an ode to the lost city and a hopeful catalyst for new life within it

While I have not keyed in on a specific place in Detroit I have studied its current urban fabric.  Unsurprisingly there is an apparent affinity for automobiles as huge parking lots fill up the city's core.  I imagine that my project will fit somewhere along those lots bringing a new edge to the city.  I am placing my project in a future where Detroit has continued to decline as people either leave or move to the city's core.  While the Detroit we have known is lost a new city is emerging.  Clearly this future is not certain but I am choosing to use this outlook for my project.  I will try to ground the project in what Detroit has been facing as it has lost its industry and use what has happened to project how it could play out.

In some ways I think this project should stand as a figurehead of what the city is attempting to re-develop as.  However because it will be in a city that has lost much of its population and industry it won't be a shining white stone building towering over the city.  I imagine it will have much more grit to it.  I also want to explore the "unsettled" architecture as a means of developing this project further; because it will be the fresh start to the city it will be setting the tone for the new built environment.  

For my project I think I will need between 50,000-75,000sqft.  This will include an exhibition spaces, studio space lobby, various service spaces, auditorium, and surrounding grounds/landscape.  This project will align fairly closely to a museum but I don't want it to be limited to that idea I want the project to not only display works but somehow be actively involved in the new order of the city.

The Experience

I have been working on finalizing the concept for my thesis.  I spent the past week reading Deluze and about Reima Pietila.  I am still not sure what project will be born from my research quite yet but I have a grasp on what I want to do and how I want it to affect its environment.  I want my project to glorify the unexplainable knowing that physical objects have that can't be translated into words.  Pietila designed exploring "form of form" the way I take this to mean is that his designs were influenced by themselves in a way.  The form was not based in function or aesthetic necessarily.  That idea is both bizarre and intriguing to me.   The forms create their own forms and while these forms may not be directly relating to any specific function they are created through a unique intuition that can only come from a physical creation.