Archinect - Features

EXTENTS on the Importance of Being Earnest, Contemporary Urbanism, and the Digital World

2019-08-21T12:00:00-04:00

How do you re-image a city? How would you re-tell this narrative? The Ann Arbor-based duo Cyrus Peñarroyo and McLain Clutter use their passions in digital media, urbanism, and visualization to help answer this very question. Heavily invested in reshaping and reworking architectural practice and academia, both are faculty at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, and also, co-founders of EXTENTS, their architectural practice. Keen on finding new ways to "see the city," the duo creates digital and spatial practices for experiencing and understanding contemporary urbanism.

According to Peñarroyo and Clutter, "if we're able to see the city differently, maybe we can get other people to see it differently, too."

For this week's Studio Snapshot, Archinect had a chance to connect with Peñarroyo and Clutter. Together, they share their goals for running a practice as well as the role academia plays in their work. They also share their values when co...

The City That Could: Understanding Detroit Through Inclusive Design and Public Policy

2019-08-14T07:00:00-04:00

In 2015, Detroit was announced as a UNESCO City of Design honoree, the first American city to receive the recognition. Since then, Detroit has made efforts to revitalize and revamp its once declining fortunes. A city with a complicated history of trying to reposition its vibrant industrial past into a thriving future, the current push to modernize Detroit has taken time, if nothing else. However, collaborative efforts between local government, planners, designers, and the community at large has helped turn the once "forgotten city" into "the city that could."

To learn more about Detroit's progress, Archinect chats with Executive Director Olga Stella of Design Core Detroit. A formidable force for change within the city, Stella helped initiate the Detroit City of Design Competition that calls for architects and designers to create solutions to help transform Detroit neighborhoods for the better. Together with Stella, we discuss the role public policy plays in architecture, the import...

Deans List: Monica Ponce de Leon of University of Michigan's Taubman College

2015-02-12T13:12:00-05:00

The Deans List is an interview series with the leaders of architecture schools, worldwide. The series profiles the school’s programming, as defined by the head honcho – giving an invaluable perspective into the institution’s unique curriculum, faculty and academic environment.

For this issue, we spoke with Monica Ponce de Leon, the Dean at University of Michigan's Taubman College.