The Brush Park Neighborhood explores a reinterpretation of the Duplex and Carriage House typologies as a catalyst for rapid urban renewal in an area of Detroit, Michigan that has been demolished, abandoned and essentially desolate for decades. 

Our proposal offers a strategically carved network of pocket outdoor social spaces (e.g. keyhole entry forecourts, embedded courtyards and raised outdoor semi-private pathways) as a new method for organizing and sequencing densely modulated exterior space. These socially dynamic niches are intended to gently blur and dissolve the boundary of the streetscape (sidewalk and street) and the gaps between the units. They animate the street deep into the city block while motivating an interlocking series of new unit types for both housing typologies. 

These spaces operate as an extended exterior circulation system that weave both the Carriage Houses and the Duplexes with two additional housing types (by our partner architects) as a new means to jumpstart this area of the city. By connecting the housing types to one another through the block(s), we hope to put forward a new prototype for residential development in Detroit that creates opportunities for micro communities within each block structure.