Taubman College Architecture Alum Gretchen Wilkins has published a collection of essays entitled, Distributed Urbanism: Cities After Google Earth. Taubman College Professor of Practice Mary-Ann Ray and Associated Professor Jason Young are two of two of fifteen selected essayists directly or indirectly exploring urban forms beyond the proliferation digital satellite imagery.

Mary Ann Ray’s essay, written in conjunction with StudioWorks and BASEbeijing partner Robert Mangurian, is entitled, “Rural urbanism: thriving under the radar–Beijing’s villages in the city.” Urban villages are a phenomenon by which rural villages are swallowed by the exploding population of the city. Ray, Mangurian and their students at BASEbeijing (a Taubman College study abroad program) have been exploring the unique economies and structures of these villages, which exist outside of the logic of the rest of the city.

The essay “Density of Emptiness” by Jason Young explores the unique and sometimes disturbing spatial conditions of Detroit, “a city under erasure.” He takes a new look at concepts of figure and void by comparing the materially dense (though vacant of population) downtown with the density of emptiness in the rest of the city. Through its unique kinds of densities, Young argues that Detroit has formed a new type of urbanism.