Assistant Professor of Architecture Steven Mankouche collaborated with design partner and visual artist Abigail Murray in the design and construction of a store for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit(MOCAD). Atelier Mankouche competed the project on May 11, 2007 with the generous help from Taubman College students Susan Massey, Ellen Donnelly, Mika Larrison and Kevin Deng.
The store was built in five components at the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit and then trucked to MOCAD. The program involved designing store fixtures for the museum that would be both secure and mobile with constraints of a $3,000 material budget 8′ x 8′ door opening to the studio space. The team proposed a small piece of architecture in a large building—a kiosk made of five different components. The components fit within the constrains of 4′ x 8′ x 8′ cubic volume, minimizing the waste and cost of its standardized materials and reducing the weight of the components so they can be moved by a single employee. Collectively the five components form an enclosed and secure kiosk that is 8′ x 8′ x 20′. The kiosk can be cracked open and the individual components reassembled in different locations and configurations depending on the museums’ needs.