lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The 2010 program for is titled, “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program provides an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.
The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please visit our facebook page or return to rogueHAA for post lecture discussions, future topics, and dates.Read More
July 26 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | No Comments »
Located approximately eight hours west of Shanghai, the city of Lu’an is relatively small by Chinese standards. With roughly 400,000 residents, it sits along the banks of the Pi River in the Anhui Province. Recently, the Pi River waterfront was the focal point for an extensive redevelopment effort outlined by the City’s 2030 Masterplan. This masterplan anticipates exponential growth, transforming Lu’an from a city of 400,000 residents to one with over 4 million people. The 2030 Masterplan goal is to create an attractive urban waterfront that accommodates this growth model, addresses environmental challenges, and protects the rich cultural heritage of existing neighborhoods and sites.
Following the City’s release of the 2030 Masterplan, the City organized the Lu’an City Pi River Urban Design Plan as an international design competition. Shortlisted as one of four competitors, HAA crafted an overall masterplan for all future development within the city of Lu’an. Integral to the overall design partii, the river becomes the city’s spirit. Humans and the environment engage the river’s edge, drawing strength from its history. This same strength is pulled outwards along projected greenways and a network of highly functional landscape systems. These greenway connections become the most important city infrastructure, stitching together all future developments along a varied, multi-functional recreational system. Read More
July 23 2010 | Posted by Brandon List | No Comments »
Artist X. As part of this blog’s ongoing mission to raise the level of design discourse, rogueHAA has created a new series of posts entitled, “Artist X”. This series will highlight local artists, showcasing unique and innovative projects found within the city. By presenting multiple creative disciplines, we hope to build community relationships, spark Detroit specific design dialogue, encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, and ultimately, strengthen the existing Detroit creative class.
Ryan Schirmang lives in Lafayette Park in Detroit. Currently, he works at Team Detroit and M1/DTW part-time. Originally from Chicago, Ryan earned his Master’s of Architecture from U of M.
Describe your work in three sentences.
I work as a Creative Project Manager for Team Detroit, one of the region’s largest ad agencies. My job is to figure out how to make interesting projects happen- projects that will make the city better – or highlight some of our cultural assets. I also learn how to put buildings together one day a week at my part-time job at M1/DTW.
These two jobs seem a bit unrelated, but they work well for me– I’m admittedly not the best designer– so I get to learn at M1/DTW, while simultaneously using my writing & communication skills at Team Detroit. I was an English major in college. Jumping between these two jobs helps keep things fresh and gives me plenty of problems to solve. I like that. Read More
July 20 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | No Comments »
In 1928, publicists marketed Detroit as the “Paris of the Midwest.” Almost a century later, the corner of Grand River and Centre St in Harmonie Park was transformed to mimic this analogy. The Parisian streetscape was constructed for the upcoming film, “The Double”, set in the streets of 1988 Paris. Existing building storefronts were slathered with Parisian “make-up” in order to resemble the most stereo-typical Parisian cafes, restaurants, boutiques, and a Hotel. Baguettes, awnings, street plantings, beaux art lighting, and quaint European bicycles were strategically placed throughout the area. For two full days, these props, actors, and filmmakers energized the streets. For two full days, the employees working in Harmonie Park realized the full urban potential of the area. Read More
July 16 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | No Comments »
The online publication, Places, is currently featuring several articles that highlight Detroit’s Urban Landscape. Dan Pitera, Director of the Detroit Collaborative Design Center at the University of Detroit Mercy, comments on several local renegade projects that have been inserted into various urban backdrops around the city. While Jerry Herron, Professor of English and American Studies at Wayne State University, develops a three part running dialogue focusing on “Borderland/Borderama/Detroit.”
July 15 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
An army of volunteers. In Detroit, volunteerism is a catalyst for change. We accomplish change by performing change, and the unique legibility of these efforts is striking within Detroit’s urbanscape. Established throughout Detroit, various non-profit volunteer organizations and their dedicated, creative volunteers have successfully regenerated many facets of our City. This legion of volunteers has provided the impetus for positive marketing campaigns, entrepreneurial endeavors, and formal urban redevelopments.
These positive interventions inspire and motivate others to contribute to our City. And so, we ask ourselves…
How can we facilitate regeneration?
How can we become the vehicle for Detroit’s transformation?
On June 15th, lecturesHAA celebrated its one-year anniversary by hosting an event aimed at answering these questions. Entitled “VOLUNTEERISM IN DETROIT: A (Re)generation Strategy”, this event provided a venue for six local non-profit volunteer organizations
to present and discuss their origins, inspirations, and bodies of work within the City of Detroit. Initially, the organizations demonstrated themselves as unique, outlining their specific programs, and then documenting their commendable efforts on a common base map of our City. Between these six local organizations over 10,000 volunteers are utilized each year within the City of Detroit. En masse, their projects influence 60 square miles of the city. The collective scope, breadth and impact of these projects are striking. Click here to view the Volunteerism Areas of Influence Mapping.Read More
July 13 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
INSIDE/OUT ART SHOW. Featuring local artists, INSIDE/OUT is an artistic exploration of the relationship between Space & Self and Environment & Personality. The opening will include work from almost 30 artists (amateurs, students, professionals). Artwork will include paintings, photography, sculpture, songs, papercraft and performance art. Following the opening, only a handful of select works will be chosen to remain in the conservatory until Friday, July 2.
A new reality series, “School Pride”, is debuting this fall on NBC at 8:00pm on Fridays. This reality based television series has chosen Detroit’s Communication and Media Arts High School (CMA) to receive a makeover. The television show intentionally utilizes local businesses, skilled local labor, and the community to renovate classrooms, public spaces, athletic facilities, art rooms, and music halls. Built in 1959, CMA was most recently slated for closure until the school became a finalist in the NBC competition. Read More
June 23 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
In his first solo exhibition in Detroit, language. power. difference., artist Joe Namy explores the issues born out of the space between languages, the codes that are used to translate, and the loss of context and meaning that occurs within translations, both internal and external.
June 17 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
TAP Gallery will occupy one residential garage in the alley and 2 vacant residential lots located across the alley. In the lots, there will be space with a variety of surfaces spread throughout for youth to create and display their artwork. The project will also include a walkable 10-garage display of high-quality, multi-color aerosol murals. Through a participatory design process with professional architects, youth and local residents will guide the design and creation of the entire TAP Gallery grounds.
HOUSE NO. 1 : I step out of my car and glance at the address listed on my clip board. I then compare that number to the faded house number adjacent to the front door. It’s a match. My partner and I glance at the neighborhood and quickly assess our surroundings. We traverse the short front walk, step up the slightly deteriorating stoop, and ring the doorbell. It doesn’t work. I tap my clipboard hard against the locked storm door. I stand square with the front door, my Detroit Housing Commission badge daggling from my shirt pocket. Like standing before a metal detector at the airport, I allow a stranger to scrutinize my intensions. I give ample time for them to complete their security check through the peephole. As I stand there, my mind wanders. What will I find on the other side of the door?
REHABILITATING DETROIT. In 2009, the federal government passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It was enacted as an economic stimulus package and immediately pumped $12.7 billion towards the modernization of the nation’s public housing. New leadership at the Detroit Housing Commission (DHC) has earmarked $8 million toward breathing new life into a scattered sites housing program that has proven national success. Through this capital outlay, the DHC is continuing its mission to provide quality housing for all Detroiters. Hamilton Anderson Associates is one of four teams of architects asked to take this journey of rehabilitation with the DHC. Our specific task is to assess the physical condition of 80 homes, but as our work continues, we realize our assessments are also about restoring the human condition.
HOUSE NO. 14 : The door opens and I walk in. Countless clipboards have already ‘surveyed’ their living conditions only to leave and never to be seen again. A woman in a hospital bed lies on her back, head propped up by a pillow so that she can listen and watch the small television on the opposite side of the room. The gurney is squeezed in amongst living room furniture. Her eyes follow me as I survey the room.
lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The initial program for 2009 will be “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program will provide an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.
The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please return to rogueHAA for future dates and topics. Read More
November 18 2009 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
chinaHAA. A few weeks ago, two of our employees trekked 24 travel hours across the globe to Hefei, China. Upon arrival, HAA commenced an innovative cross-cultural, cross-professional exchange. For the next four months, these employees will be working directly for the Hefei University of Technology within their architecture/design department. During this time, they will be posting illustrative photos that speak to Design, China, and all of the discovered Details. Read More
November 23 2009 | Posted by Christina Hansen | Comments Off
PRO BONO PUBLICO : For the public good or well being, and more commonly understood in the world of professional services as ‘free’.
DEFINING PRO BONO. We all understand disparities in wealth and access to professional services. To some, these disparities compel a moral imperative to provide professional services to under-served communities. Many architects regularly perform pro bono services for a variety of ends. While certain firms focus on needs of the international community, such as Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and his disaster relief housing for Japan, Turkey, and India, others focus on issues specific to the United States. Auburn University’s Rural Studio has been designing and building housing and civic buildings in rural Alabama since 1993, while Yale University has an even longer tradition of volunteering their design/build services to their local community. While globalization has increased the reach and scope of the architect, it has also brought to the forefront the major issues that plague our societies. A great need exists globally and locally, and architects are more capable than ever to affect change.
FOR-PROFIT ENGAGEMENT. Even as a number of non-profit firms work diligently across the country, almost exclusively for other non-profit organizations, the for-profit environment has yet to wholly embrace the social and moral side of architecture. Public Architecture, an organization founded in 2002, has initiated a 1% commitment for all for-profit architecture firms. They strive to commit the resources available within the field of architecture to act as advocates for social justice, thereby improving communities locally and globally. “The 1% program of Public Architecture connects nonprofit organizations in need of design assistance with architecture and design firms willing to donate their time on a pro bono basis.” Public Architecture speculates, “If every architecture professional in the U.S. committed 1% of their time to pro bono service, it would add up to 5,000,000 hours annually – the equivalent of a 2,500-person firm, working full-time for the public good.” Read More
November 25 2009 | Posted by Aaron Taylor | Comments Off
During the summer of 2009, rouse[D] hosted a design competition that challenged its participants to “come up with designs that will rouse the city of Detroit and encourage an evolution of our understanding of its unique urban environment.” This international, open ideas competition further required design solutions to be “specific to the one-of-a kind condition Detroit presents.” While the proposed design interventions were allowed to creatively fluctuate, all solutions had to be grounded in a site specific to Detroit.
Working independently from HAA, my competition submission focused on the recent closings of Detroit Public Schools throughout the city. During Detroit’s more populated past, many of the city’s neighborhoods had elementary schools as their community anchor. Following the city’s population decline of the past five decades, these same neighborhoods have struggled to populate the very schools that once provided community stability. Most recently, the Detroit Public Schools announced closure of 23 schools as the city grapples with mounting budget problems. (For a more detailed of Detroit’s current depopulation conditions, refer to previous post titled HAA RESEARCH : Consolidating Detroit). My submission sought to address the reuse of one of these vacant elementary schools. Read More
December 03 2009 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
chinaHAA. A month ago, two of our employees trekked 24 travel hours across the globe to Hefei, China. Upon arrival, HAA commenced an innovative cross-cultural, cross-professional exchange. For the next three months, these employees will be working directly for the Hefei University of Technology within their architecture/design department. During this time, they will be posting illustrative photos that speak to Design, China, and all of the discovered Details. Read More
December 08 2009 | Posted by Christina Hansen | Comments Off
BACK TO THE FUTURE. Last month the Taubman School of Architecture hosted the ambitiously titled Future of Design Conference, bringing together a prestigious group of design professionals to present their thoughts and work on the conference topic. Based on the Pecha Kucha format, each individual was given fifteen minutes to present a rapid-fire succession of projects, speculations, and research, and diatribe. While certain thematic similarities surfaced throughout the course of the presentations, by and large the variety of presented topics reflected the current diversity of the design field. One consistent topic, however, centered on the ways technology is changing the means and methods of architectural production. To contextualize this theme, it is interesting to trace the evolution of technology as it relates to avant-garde architecture and design practices.
Historically, “visionary architecture” has existed as work which is often highly polemic and rarely built. In his book Visionary Architecture: Blueprints of the Modern Imagination, Neil Spiller writes that “this history is linked to the metaphorphosis of the ‘machine’ and the technologies that embody it. Whether ‘machines’ are the conceptual ones of Marcel Duchamp, the mechanized armatures of cranes on a building site, the virtual machines within computers or the cabbalistic machines of Daniel Libeskind, they have all influenced the course of architectural vision.” Works such as, Constant’s New Babylon (1950), Archigram’s Walking City (1964), Superstudio’s Continuous Monument (1971), or even Buckminster Fuller’s proposed Dome for Manhattan (1960), functioned not as serious proposals for built work, but as devices for questioning certain social, political, and technological issues. Read More
December 14 2009 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
Grand Treatment: Presently on display at Grand Circus Park, a Tinkertoy-inspired steel scaffolding system props up the facade of the old Fine Arts Building. Built in 1905, this building once housed the lobby of the famous Adams Theater. For many years, the building sat in a state of dormancy, waiting for the return of Detroit. Recently, the building’s owner funded an architectural study to determine the structural state of the building, only the façade was deemed salvageable. With surgical precision, construction crews recently separated the façade from the deteriorating structure, and then reinforced the masonry elevation with massive steel supports. As there are no published plans for the redevelopment of this site, the façade stands alone, stoically guarding Grand Circus Park. In its current state, the façade sparks creative curiosity. How does one reprogram a single façade? In a city that favors demolition, the preservation of this little slice of history is a small urban victory. Read More
December 21 2009 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The initial program for 2010 will be “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program will provide an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.
The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please return to rogueHAA for future dates and topics.
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture – it’s a really stupid thing to want to do.”
-Elvis Costello
lecturesHAA : Event 4. With the tempo of a beatnik and a black turtleneck sweater to match, Craig Wilkins free-formed one December evening before an intimate crowd at the Johanson Charles Gallery. Neither traditional presentation nor musical jam session, his lecture entitled “Dancing about Architecture…Part 3”, ebbed and flowed in accordance with the accompanying music. Miles Davis. Nelly. John Coltrane. Lil’ Kim. Brazilian Salsa. Public Enemy. Each musical style provided a unique lens in which to view an architect’s design process and their resulting built form. Brazilian Salsa directly influenced Gaudi’s Parc Guelle. Josephine Baker provided inspiration for both Adolf Loos’ Villa Baker and Le Corbusier’sCity of Algiers. James Brown infiltrated South America, thereby evolving the favelas of Brazil. Hip Hop music prompts Rural Studio and the dramatic sampling of found materials. Read More
January 08 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | 1 Comment »
On Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 6 pm, the University of Detroit Mercy’s Master of Community Development Program is proudly co-sponsoring the Design Center Panel and Lecture, Cleveland + Detroit: “Design Centers as Operative Change” to be held in the Genevieve Fisk Loranger Architecture Center at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. Read More
January 12 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Located in Detroit’s Midtown District, the Detroit School of Arts (DSA) is a progressive high school of choice, offering a dual-focus curriculum in the fine / performing arts and broadcast/media arts. The DSA brings an innovative educational approach to the Detroit Public School district, blending college prep within a dynamic and interactive learning environment.
The six-story building features many unique academic, performance and production spaces, including the 800-seat Ford Theater, a 20-seat recital hall, a black box theater, arts studios and galleries, as well as a vocal and instrumental music rehearsal rooms. The Communications Production Center (CPC) houses two state of the art television production studios, WRCJ-FM Radio, and digital media editing suites. The top-floor media center and dining hall spaces afford students expansive views of the city’s downtown skyline. The innovative design was conceived and refined through close collaboration with specialty consultants, user groups and Detroit Public Schools. Throughout the design process, all aspects of the site, building and the related systems and materials were considered and developed with a commitment to sustainability and integrated design. As a result, the Detroit School of Arts was the first LEED certified building in the City of Detroit. Read More
January 14 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
[Part two in a series chronicling our experiences assisting the Detroit Housing Commission (DHC). For further description, refer to our first housing narrative post.]
House No. 3: My car’s wipers intermittently clear our line of sight. My colleague and I drive past two vacant homes, a vacant school, three vacant lots, and a vacant business. Finally, we turn onto a block where most of the houses seem to be intact. The rain is pouring down and we are unprepared. Holding clip boards over our heads, we make a dash to the home’s covered porch.
We ring the doorbell. “Who is it?” an elderly woman yells through a door that remains locked. I answer that we are doing a survey for the Detroit Housing Commission. “I don’t know anything about a survey” she answers. I offer that she can call someone with the Housing Commission and she can confirm our presence with them. The door cracks open. She asks for ID. I offer her a photoless ID as I also start to call my contact at the Housing Commission. Handing the phone to her, she speaks to the person. After a brief conversation, she re-opens the door and only allows me inside. My colleague is left to stand in the rain. I begin the survey. The elderly woman silently follows me into every room.
Aging in Place. The statistics are striking. 89% of 50+ year old Americans intend to remain in their own homes as long as they possibly can. Experts define this as “aging in place.” According to a 2003 National Transportation Availability and Use Survey, 3.5 million Americans never leave their homes, and more than half of the homebound are people with disabilities.
As designers, we must address these striking statistics. With 13.5% of Detroit’s population at or over the age of 60, designers must help the City attract and retain its senior population. As concluded by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), we must create, “…communities that design for livability, empower their residents to remain independent and engaged, and offer a better quality of life.” Read More
January 19 2010 | Posted by Rob Saxon | Comments Off
This past Wednesday, Matthew Barney gave a lecture at the DIA. When asked why he had chosen Detroit as the next stages of his artistic endeavors, Barney replied that Detroit is like an archeological dig. Through decades of devastation, the city has exposed itself and all of its previous layers of associated history. Fully exposed, the city is open, vulnerable, and supportive of his current work.
Matthew Barney is a multi-media, experiential artist. In his current work, he is continuing his Cremaster Series with an interpretation of Norman Mailer’s “Ancient Evenings.” The saga begins with the transformation of the Series’ central character from a 1964 Chrysler Newport into a Pontiac Trans Am. The automobile returns to its birth site (Detroit) and plunges into the Detroit River off of the Belle Isle Bridge.
For Barney, Detroit offers itself like a handshake, complimenting his ongoing artistic vision. Read More
January 22 2010 | Posted by Brian Hurttienne | Comments Off
chinaHAA. Two months ago, two of our employees trekked 24 travel hours across the globe to Hefei, China. Upon arrival, HAA commenced an innovative cross-cultural, cross-professional exchange. For the next few weeks, these employees will be working directly for the Hefei University of Technology within their architecture/design department. During this time, they will be posting illustrative photos that speak to Design, China, and all of the discovered Details.
These photos share a singular commonality: possession of the streets. Residents, businesses, and transportation all possessively claim the shared infrastructure for personal gain.
NAIAS. This past week, Detroit hosted the 2010 North American International Auto Show. While automobiles were obviously the main attraction, the individual booths and exhibitions also provided design appeal. While certain companies focused on style and beauty by incorporating fashion models into their displays, others used architectural elements to define space and evoke a sense of innovation and technology. More importantly, each display was very specifically creative, resulting in a physical manifestation of each car company’s identity. Read More
January 26 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
February 4, 2010 05:10 PM
The Michigan Theater
603 E. Liberty Street
Ann Arbor, MI
Bjarke Ingels is a Danish architect. He is heading the architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group which he founded in 2006. In his designs, Bjarke Ingels often try to balance a playful and a practical approach to architecture.
Bjarke Ingels studied architecture at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen and the Technica Superior de Arquitectura in Barcelona, receiving his diploma in 1998. As a 3rd year student he set up his first practice and won his first competition. From 1998-2001 he worked for Office of Metropolitan Architecture and Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam. Read More
January 28 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Recently ending its run on January 17th, the DIA presented a beautiful collection of Richard Avedon Fashion photography, spanning his career from 1944-2000. This exhibit welcomed the viewers into one of the many avenues of his career, fashion photography, allowing us to passively experience an extravagant, elegant lifestyle uncommon to the average person. These pieces also paid tribute to the impact Avedon created within the fashion and photography industries. His vision and creativity invented a photographic style many emulate today, but few achieve.
DISASTER RELIEF HOUSING. The president of Haiti, Rene Preval, is living in a tent. Or rather, he will be shortly, once they pitch it. He is doing this in part out of necessity and partly as a show of solidarity while he makes an international appeal for 200,000 tents. Potentially, these 200,000 tents will house as many as a million Haitian earthquake survivors.
As the Haitian relief efforts transition from rescue, food, and medical aide, to longer term reconstruction efforts like transitional and permanent housing, the world of architecture will likely revisit the design typologies of disaster relief housing. While much of the architectural and design community is uninvolved with disaster relief housing, some architects and entrepreneurs have produced effective prototypes that serve the global community in times of need. There are a number of considerations for the design and implementation of disaster relief housing strategies, not the least of which address sustainability, duration of use, vernacular architecture, climate, cost, and the lives of refugees impacted by the disaster. Most importantly, many in the scientific community predict that the global climate is becoming increasingly violent and the destructive power of natural disasters will be experienced all over the globe. It is imperative that we develop holistic methodologies for disaster relief housing, as their necessity will become more urgent. Read More
February 03 2010 | Posted by Aaron Taylor | Comments Off
On Wednesday, February 10th, Evan Webber from HOK Toronto will be lecturing at the University of Detroit. Beginning at 6pm, the lecture is entitled, “Transposed Experience, the necessity of autobiography?” and will take place in the Genevieve Fisk Loranger Architecture Center in the School of Architecture. Click here for more information. Read More
February 03 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 13; 7pm-11pm Exhibition Date: February 13 – March 27, 2010
Adam Shirley’s first solo exhibit in Detroit, presents the artist’s latest investigations into the relationships that exist between two and three dimensional objects, material and scale. In a departure from the small wearable sculptures and jewelry for which he is commonly known, Shirley explores form and volume in model-sized flat pieces that leave the interpretation of scale and function open to the viewer. Read More
February 08 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
chinaHAA. Two months ago, two of our employees trekked 24 travel hours across the globe to Hefei, China. Upon arrival, HAA commenced an innovative cross-cultural, cross-professional exchange. For the next two weeks, these employees will be working directly for the Hefei University of Technology within their architecture/design department. During this time, they will be posting illustrative photos that speak to Design, China, and all of the discovered Details. Read More
February 16 2010 | Posted by Christina Hansen | Comments Off
Due to unforeseen conditions we are changing the location of tonight’s lecture event. We apologize for the late notice. The new location will be Shed 3 at Eastern Market. This is approximately 250′ east of the original location, the Johanson Charles Gallery, at 1345 Division Street. The newly renovated Shed 3 will provide a unique and compelling new venue for our event tonight. Shed 3 is heated with ample seating (restrooms are also available).
Thanks for your understanding.
We’ll see you tonight at 6pm.
Sincerely,
HAA
February 16 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
“It only took seconds to destroy so many bright hopes and dreams in Haiti. The 280 city PechaKucha network is joining with Architecture for Humanity to help rebuild Haiti 20 seconds at a time. Join us around the world on 20th February for Global PechaKucha Day for Haiti.”
20 seconds, 20 images, 200 cities, 2000 presentations, 200,000 people – with the aim to raise $1,000,000 for rebuilding Haiti. Read More
February 18 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
“Waiting for the City” – A Stream of Effective Consciousness
On Tuesday, February 16th over 70 people gathered in Eastern Market’s Shed 3 to participate in the first lecturesHAA event of 2010. With a quiet and unassuming demeanor, Phillip Cooley, co-owner and creator of Slows Bar BQ in Corktown, began his lecture, “Waiting for the City.” Through a cursory review of his life experiences, he discussed the events that ultimately led him to Detroit and his evolution as an entrepreneur, advocate, designer and contractor.
By tracing the lines of a discursive career – highlighting activities prior to his arrival in Detroit, as well as those that occurred once there – Cooley illustrated the foundations for his personal urban perspective and the motivations for a body of work that ranges from ephemeral gestures to long-term strategic planning. Within a broad stream of information came an image of a person whose commitment, advocacy and direct engagement with the city, provides a powerful example of one individual making a difference in Detroit. Read More
February 26 2010 | Posted by Dan Kinkead | Comments Off
Designed Theatricality. Jane Jacobs called everyday city animation the “ballet of sidewalk life”, strangers dancing in synchronicity. In Detroit’s Lafayette Park, the residents are not strangers. Rather, each day the residents perform a synchronized animation, live performances through the lens of modern architecture. For, to live in Lafayette Park is to live in a constant state of theatricality, the pre-designed and very deliberate exhibition of both resident and visitor. The masterplan, architecture, and landscaping strategically combine to create a multitude of voyeuristic portals, viewing frames that project the lives of every resident to one another. Designed within a multiplicity of physical and temporal scales, these portals produce meaningful relationships between the residents and their community, resulting in the fundamental success of LaFayette Park. Read More
March 04 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
University of Michigan’s Taubman College is hosting the Future of Urbanism conference, March 19-20, 2010. Over twenty designers, critics and provocative thinkers will address some of the most critical issues facing our cities and their environs in six sessions, comprised of 15-minute segments and a panel discussion. The presentations are free and open to the public, but registration is required. All segments will be available on YouTube in April.
Field observation. Amidst the cold and snow typical to our Detroit winters, the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority (DWCPA) is steadily progressing through construction. Located at the intersection of Bates and Atwater in Downtown Detroit, the DWCPA Public Dock and Terminal “is designed to not only harbor and attract cruise ships, but also any other transient vessels visiting Detroit.” Once completed, this HAA designed facility will accommodate visiting domestic and international vessels and further energize Detroit’s already successful pedestrian Riverwalk.
The expected public opening for cruise operations is tentatively scheduled for summer 2011.
CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART [SPRING] EDITION LECTURE SERIES. In its inaugural year, the Academy’s Edition Lecture Series presents a program that reflects the current variety of contemporary thought and creative practice through the eyes of artist, critics and scholars. All lectures begin at 6:00 pm in Cranbrook Institute of Science Auditorium and are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Parking is available in the structure to the south of the entrance.
Thursday, March 4 @ 6PM
Peter Gluck presents “Fear of Architecture: Re-crafting a Broken Process”Read More
March 04 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night? – Jack Kerouac
Detroit is ironically the most and least likely place to discuss mass transit. Once the home of one of the nation’s most extensive streetcar systems (link to map), Detroit has become synonymous with decentralization, suburban expansion, and the dominance of the automobile. Where human mobility was once limited by the location of rail lines, canals, and the limited travel range of other non-motorized forms of transportation, the car provided a universal form of personal transportation which could be used at virtually any geographic scale. Unfortunately, the success of the car came at the expense of all other modes of transportation, eventually leading Detroit and other cities toward an inefficient and unsustainable transit monoculture.
Recently, infrastructural failures in this country have gained national and international attention. With increasing national imperative, as well as efforts at the regional and local level, it appears mass transit is finally becoming a reality. High-speed rail development in Florida between Tampa, Orlando and Miami, and in California linking Sacramento, San Francisco and L.A., has been covered extensively throughout the media. Portland Oregon’s streetcar system has become a benchmark for urban transit in this country. And the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has allocated substantial funds to the development of public transit systems, indicating a shift in support and investment toward sustainable car alternatives. As this transition occurs, however, it is important to consider not only the new forms of transportation infrastructure and technology that will be necessary, but also the relationship between these and existing development patterns. Read More
March 10 2010 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
On April 8th, HAA’s Mike Ford will be lecturing on “Cultural Innovation – Hip Hop Inspired Architecture and Design” @ The University of Michigan. This 8:00 pm event is being hosted by The University of Michigan’s “Hip Hop Congress” chapter. Click here for a previous posting on Hip Hop Architecture. Read More
March 29 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The initial program for 2010 will be “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program will provide an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.
The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please return to rogueHAA for future dates and topics.
EVENT 06: Lecture
DETROIT: The Grotesque (and other projects)
Christian Unverzagt, Principal Design Director @ M1/DTW
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 17; 7pm – 11pm Exhibition Date: April 17 – May 29, 2010
Kate Silvio‘s solo exhibit at Re:View, titled expect.expecting.expected., features the artist’s latest investigations of our relationship with nature’s intrinsic forces of change and progression. click here for more informationRead More
April 08 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
Artist X. As part of this blog’s ongoing mission to raise the level of design discourse, rogueHAA has created a new series of posts entitled, “Artist X”. This series will highlight local artists, showcasing unique and innovative projects found within the city. By presenting multiple creative disciplines, we hope to build community relationships, spark Detroit specific design dialogue, encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, and ultimately, strengthen the existing Detroit creative class. Read More
April 09 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
The American Dream has run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies.-J.G. Ballard
Tall Tales. The story of the American transportation infrastructure system is one of heroic planning, but also of equally heroic rhetoric. At each stage in its evolution – be it the canals and waterways of the Gallatin Plan, the Intercontinental Railways, or the Interstate Highway system – the connection between the pragmatic realities of steel and concrete and the cultural myths which support them has been tenuous at best. Yet each is inextricably linked to the other, and in many cases essential to its success. As we embark on the next national transit planning initiatives, these myths will inevitably become wrapped around a new set of objectives; providing meaning and purpose to the practical endeavors of transit planning. Read More
April 11 2010 | Posted by James Witherspoon | Comments Off
Artist X. As part of this blog’s ongoing mission to raise the level of design discourse, rogueHAA has created a new series of posts entitled, “Artist X”. This series will highlight local artists, showcasing unique and innovative projects found within the city. By presenting multiple creative disciplines, we hope to build community relationships, spark Detroit specific design dialogue, encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, and ultimately, strengthen the existing Detroit creative class.
Noah Resnick currently teaches and practices in the city of Detroit, Michigan. He is a full-time professor of architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy, and a principal of uRbanDetail, a small research based architecture and urban design studio that operates under the interrelated concepts of the architectonics of multiple scales; the architect as urban collaborator; and the architect as community builder.
Noah grew up in Miami, Florida, where he attended the Design and Architecture Senior High magnet school (D.A.S.H.). He earned his BArch from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and completed his Masters of Science in Architecture Studies (SMarchS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Architecture + Urbanism stream. In addition to Detroit, Noah has lived and practiced in Chicago, Boston, and New York, as well as Berlin, Germany where he worked in the studio of Daniel Libeskind.
His professional experience in architecture and urban design ranges from the conceptual and design development of a two hundred thousand sq ft mall/ spa complex in Switzerland, to in depth urban design studies and proposals for very high profile Central Artery sites above the ‘Big Dig’ in Downtown Boston, to the full service design and construction administration of a high-end townhouse building in New York City, to the landscape design of the City Hall Plaza and nearby park in Downtown Brockton, Massachusetts. Most recently, Noah has been a founding member of the design team working to transform Roosevelt Park in Detroit through the design and implementation of a new master plan. uRbanDetail is also currently designing the 2nd location of Slows Barbecue, in Midtown. Read More
April 29 2010 | Posted by Carl Bolofer | Comments Off
On April 13th, local designer and University of Michigan professor, Christian Unverzagt, gave a compelling lecture summarizing his Detroit design work. Divided directly down the middle, Christian inadvertently described his work using a split personality analogy, first illustrating his architectural pedagogy through multiple student projects and then following with his professional work through M1/dtw. Read More
May 14 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
HYBRID URBANISM.
Landscape Urbanism advocates a purposeful discourse between ecological systems, human activities, and the post-industrial landscape, ultimately manifesting in the deliberate celebration of the urban void. This celebration glorifies the interstitial, so that the void is inevitably romanticized by, and is necessary to, the burgeoning Landscape Urbanism profession. Reliance on the void introduces a basic set of dilemmas: In order to focus on the space between buildings, there must be buildings; planning creative programming between infrastructural systems requires existing infrastructure; implementing a proposed hybrid ecology between urban eco-systems and human eco-systems requires human eco-systems. All of these very specific examples result in a single common statement: In order to have an urban void, there first needs to be an urban, or rather a recognizable urban density.
What if the relationship between building density and void are reversed and the void is now the primary urban component? What does it mean to reclaim a contaminated post-industrial site within a post urban city, a city whose built fabric has devolved into vast stretches of rural landscape? Operating within the current design process parameters, Landscape Urbanism succeeds primarily in high-density urban fabrics such as New York City, Boston, and Chicago. In these cities, individual brownfield sites are easily identifiable as precious, rare interstitial spaces. These voids are ultimately reclaimed, remediated, and creatively stitched back into the dense urban fabric to be utilized by their host city. In post-industrial cities such as Detroit however, the urban condition (building density) has dissolved as the metropolis has decentralized. Neither the city nor the suburbs sustain the density required to find the contaminated land valuable, and thus lack a desire to stitch these abandoned outposts into their community. Combine all of these individual outposts together and the metropolitan region is scarred by larger swaths of contaminated land, further compartmentalizing dissipated downtowns from their thriving suburban counterparts. On the national scale, we can recognize a larger post-industrial megalopolis landscape: shrinking cities left to die back into a growing contaminated terrain. For the City of Detroit, the void is now the majority on a multiplicity of scales. This presents the fundamental challenge of practicing a type of Landscape Urbanism appropriate to Detroit’s post urban condition.
With the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge Gateway, Hamilton Anderson Associates (HAA), seeks to broaden the Landscape Urbanism discourse by implementing a strategic, multi-scalar design process that reexamines urban and redefines the void. Read More
May 04 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
The United States Green Building Council has initiated a nationwide design competition for a LEED platinum, single family home for the Broadmoor district of New Orleans, LA. This competition, entitled USGBC’s 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition, targets innovative design solutions from students and emerging professionals, while challenging designers to create an inexpensive (under $100K construction budget) contextually sensitive home.
A small group of HAA designers have challenged themselves to create the new archetypal home in New Orleans – a home that engages the existing neighborhood and city infrastructure from the elevated platformof post-Katrina housing. Four winning designs will be constructed by the Salvation Army, measured and verified during a designated sustainable testing phase, and then only afterwards will a final winner be selected. Read More
May 13 2010 | Posted by Aaron Taylor | Comments Off
lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.
The 2010 program for is titled, “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program provides an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit. Read More
May 14 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
Artist X. As part of this blog’s ongoing mission to raise the level of design discourse, rogueHAA has created a new series of posts entitled, “Artist X”. This series will highlight local artists, showcasing unique and innovative projects found within the city. By presenting multiple creative disciplines, we hope to build community relationships, spark Detroit specific design dialogue, encourage multi-disciplinary collaboration, and ultimately, strengthen the existing Detroit creative class.
Brian DuBois is currently the owner of 2:37am studios, a multi-disciplinary studio that he started in 1999. His shop focuses on design/build/models that range in small to medium scaled projects. His belief within his shop is that you should understand the materials, details, and production techniques before you design, which in the end will help the design process and overall construction budget.
He was born and raised in River Rouge, Michigan (a small factory town near southwest Detroit) and received his 5-year B.A. Arch. from the University of Detroit Mercy. Currently, he is working towards his M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Arts, focusing on furniture/product design. He has worked in a variety of trades that range from carpentry, electrical, roofing, managing the architecture woodshop at UDM, and auto show/retail exhibition designs.
In 2006, Brian ventured beyond the typical architectural products by creating his :2:37am: clothing line. With his clothing line, he showcases the industrial aspects of the Detroit metropolitan region while collaborating with local and international talent.
SUMMER IN THE CITY. This Friday evening, the non-profit volunteer organization, Summer in the City (SITC), will be hosting an open house from 7pm until 10pm at the Burton School on Cass Avenue. This family friendly affair (I’ve been told there will be decorative painting and drawing on their classroom walls) will celebrate the following:
The Object Show. Summer in the City has teamed up with the American Society of Media Photographers to host The Object Show. Dozens of Detroit artists have donated their work for a silent auction. All proceeds go towards SITC volunteer efforts.
Summer Season Kick-Off. Meet the 2010 SITC Crew and find out about their upcoming volunteer season.
Housewarming. SITC has their first official headquarters – an old classroom in the recently reprogrammed Burton School.
This non-profit organization has been working around the city of Detroit for the past nine summers and will be showcased during the next lecturesHAA event on June 15th, “VOLUNTEERISM IN DETROIT: A (Re)Generation Strategy”.
Flippin’ (or to Flip) is the process of manipulating and fashioning a sound into a beat. Sometimes this sample is manipulated so much that you can’t even tell where it came from. Still, there are other cases where a sample can be flipped, even while it contains its original identity. Flippin’ can also be the reinterpretation or reconceptualization of an established style, sound, practice, and/or theme.
Recent research initiatives at HAA revealed the necessity for a new approach, one that can more successfully address some of Detroit’s most notable challenges. This new approach should not only acknowledge our existing circumstances, but seek to leverage and then “flip” them into figurative and literal assets. Since past conventional practices have contributed to our current situation, should we rely on these same practices to resolve our current conditions? Further aggravating the perceived confusion, many in the national media still focus on perpetuating negative perceptions. As designers, we have an immediate opportunity to shift these perceptions toward a more positive frame of mind, utilizing innovative design strategies that (re)present negative attributes as previously unrecognized positive opportunities.
Put simply, a negative perception can truly become positive. Previously negative language implications can be transformed into provocative drivers for positive socioeconomic outcomes. When applied on multiple fronts, these “flipped” perspectives can emerge into a clearly unified view of Detroit. Read More
May 21 2010 | Posted by Melissa Dittmer | Comments Off
DETROIT IN ‘D MINOR’. British singer/songwriter Imogen Heap gave an inspired performance at the Fillmore Theatre on May 22nd. Best known for her use of manipulated electronic sounds, personal lyrics, and funky style, Heap is using her current tour to endorse multiple charitable causes.
While promoting her new Album, Ellipse, Imogen has decided to try and raise $54,000 for local charities on her North American tour. Each night she will perform a completely improvised piece of music, unique to that city. The audience gets to choose the tempo, key, and time signature for the song. The Detroit audience requested a song in D minor, with a ¾ time, and a medium tempo; hence ‘Detroit in D Minor’. Following the performance, each city’s song will be made available for purchase through her website. Making the charitable cause even more specific to each city, the audience also suggests the charitable organization to receive any and all proceeds. Based on Detroit fan suggestions, Imogen selected the Detroit Metro organization, Urban Farming, to receive all charitable donations collected through the purchasing of “Detroit in D Minor”.
Not yet posted on her site, Detroit will soon have another original song to call its own.
