So my last post has induced a lot of diverse responses and opinions...which is awesome.  As a work in progress, it is great to be able to get feedback to help me clarify and/or reframe my argument.

As predicted, a conversation has emerged about 'ruin porn' which unfortunately has become synonymous with Detroit and will be present in any discussion surrounding the city's past/present/future. As a means to clarify my position and to try to move the discussion into more productive avenues, below is my working Thesis Statement/Manifesto.

propose[EXISTING]

The city of Detroit, like many cities that saw incredible growth and expansion during the decades surrounding the Industrial Revolution, has also seen incredible decline in its absence.  While there are many factors that have contributed to the deterioration of the post-industrial city, issues discussed here will focus on haphazard building regulations, uncontrolled growth, lack of construction oversight, segregation and the rise of the renter state as the major causes of decline in the post-industrial city of Detroit. The subject of this focus will be on worker housing and through this lens, an investigation of material realities resulting from these social and economic conditions will commence. The goal of this investigation will be to reveal new architectural realities more germane to present conditions.

This investigation will look closely at how construction methods and material practices for worker housing in Detroit were shaped, and in most cases solely determined by, the factors mentioned above.  A timeline will be drawn from the time of construction in the early 20th century to their present state of neglect. The purpose of documenting this lifecycle will be to interrogate their construction methods and subsequent decline while at the same time providing a framework for intervention. This interrogation will systematically uncover connections between the conditions that induced the artifact and allowed for its propagation, agents of abatement and finally the cultural and social paradigms which led to the artifacts current understanding as ‘ruin.’

Drawing on the current material realities of the post-industrial neighborhood, the work will seek to conceive new construction and material processes by cultivating ‘distress’ as a working condition for architecture. Various methods including, but not limited not, [embedding], [encoding], [layering] and [active deconstruction] will be deployed as a way to reframe distress as additive or generative to architecture instead of subtractive. Once quantified, these [other]constructions will be deployed on an existing structure in the neighborhood surrounding the former Packard Automotive Plant. The work will reveal the current state of the post-industrial neighborhood not as one of decay or ‘ruin’ but as a moment of transition between one reality to another. While this transition is not one of hierarchical structure, favoring one state of being over the other, it is deeply rooted in the temporality of the community, both as a social structure and built landscape. Framed in such a way, this new reality allows us to be more than distant observers of a failed condition, but a participant in a new condition for our neighborhoods and cities alike. The nature of this participation is one not bound by past paradigms, but responsive to the post-industrial landscape.

With other[constructions] now active in the neighborhood through a physical, site specific construct the work will again look to the past as a way to project on the present. The timeline and lifecycle of Detroit’s worker housing will be retroactively rewritten through the lens of these other[constructions]. History will diverge from its linear path and instead form an alternative trajectory through the replacement of construction methods, which were governed by haphazard building regulations and uncontrolled growth, with [other]constructions which project forward to allow for transitions between states of function, use and alternative realities belonging to the present condition.

The success of the project will hinge on its ability to reframe current states of decay or ‘signs of distress’ as productive actors within the post-industrial neighborhood.  The goal being not to restore a past state of functionality or occupancy, but instead speculate on alternative forms of ‘being’ which are more adaptable to radically changing conditions. An important point here is that when conditions change in the neighborhood, they not only alter the physical landscape, but also the social and cultural requirements that necessitated the landscape. Conditions of program and function that were required during a previous condition might either no longer be relevant, or severely altered to conform to current conditions. In this sense propose[EXISTING], through its physical manifestations and revisionist history, will  reveal a new architecture not born from the ruins of the post-industrial landscape, but revealed from it.

As part of my thesis research into the past, present and future realities of Detroit housing, I have started to use representational devises as a means of speculation.  The current work seeks out opportunities, not in the present or future, but embedded in the past.   This current work...

In the course of thinking about ways to avoid working on my thesis, I came up with an idea to launch what I am calling the "Taxonomy Project."  Basically, I am trying to document the life/work/play of a thesis student, using Taubman College as a case study.   What I am trying to get at...

A few weeks ago our studio, Apophenic Ecologies with Adam Fure and visiting professor Matias del Campo, finished up with an amazing final review.  Considering we had almost as many critics as students in the studio, it was a little intimidating.  Fortunately, each of the 3 student teams...

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This is an exciting post for me as it will not only cover a topic that has framed most of my M.Arch education, but also because it is the first post of this blog's new format… the transition from education to profession and all the interstitial space in between.  I can think of no...

DISCLAIMER: Welcome to my new blog!  I originally created this blog last year in order to provide a glimpse into the world of Taubman College at the University of Michigan and the life of a graduate student in the program.  While I thoroughly enjoyed reporting on all the...

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"Hey hsolie! We noticed you haven't updated your blog "The Michigan Difference" in a while.   Do you have something new to say? Click here post a new entry. http://archinect.com/add_blogpost/23116650 Are you totally done with this blog? Click here to archive your blog (select the "Archive...

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Hello world, my name is Harold-Sprague Solie and I am currently in my 2nd of 3 years as a graduate student at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (in future blogs referred to as "TCAUP" for short).  You can also call me Harry for short, I only use...