Hamilton Anderson Associates (HAA) is a multi-disciplinary Detroit design firm dedicated to improving the built environment through creative, contemporary design. The counterpart to HAA’s architectural practice is rogueHAA, a design and research studio based in our Detroit office. While HAA focuses on the thoughtful design and construction of buildings and landscapes, rogueHAA operates beyond the traditional practice boundaries to consider post-industrial strategies, branding, media, pop-culture, publishing, the facilitation of design discourse, and the promotion of urban advocacy.

Started in 2008 as an after-hours voluntary design forum, rogueHAA maintains one single goal:  To raise the level of design discourse in Detroit by challenging the public to practice critical, creative thinking.  As architectural advocates, we can provide more for our city’s design community by encouraging creative discourse than through the design and construction of any building type.  We have implemented two complementary efforts that have begun to instigate change within the Detroit community: www.roguehaa.com, an urbanism blog, and lecturesHAA, a multi-topic speaker series.   A third initiative, installationsHAA, is currently being explored by a multi-disciplinary collaborative team.

Our second initiative, lecturesHAA, is dedicated to creating broad, creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. Our inaugural lecture program (2009-2010) utilized a common theme: “CHALLENGING DETROIT: (Re)generating Urbanism” and resulted in nine bi-monthly lecture events.  The first six events featured Detroit artists (Design99, Sweet Juniper, Phil Cooley, Craig Wilkens and others) sharing their personal regeneration strategies.  As the events passed, we established quite a following; audiences grew from fifteen to two hundred.  Transitioning to panel discussions, in lieu of single speakers, extended our audience diversity beyond the design community into the community-at-large.  Each event was free, open to the public, and held within a different city space, raising awareness of forgotten sites, and those that illustrated adaptive reuse opportunities. A summary of these nine events can be found on rogueHAA.

lecturesHAA is pleased to announce its 2011/2012 program: “PROVOCATIONS: Challenging Detroit’s Design Discourse”. This bi-monthly lecture series will begin in June and continue through the end of 2012.  Each panel discussion will invite local, regional, and national figures to discuss what makes Detroit provocative.  Set in a variety of under-utilized, contested, and historically charged spaces throughout our city, each event seeks to challenge the participants through candid discourse and direct engagement of the built environment.  It is the aim of each panel discussion to explore new urban strategies that promote social equity and advocacy.  We believe good design (and good design discourse) is a proactive and critical act, toeing the line between conflict and resolution.  While each event exists for only a moment, the entire series will provide a lasting catalogue of constructive dialogue, informing Detroit’s shared creative consciousness. (more…)