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.