Architecture Faculty’s Detroit Projects Connect Contemporary Art, Design and Development

The work of three Taubman College faculty members was featured in an article for The Architect’s Newspaper, “Digging Into Detroit’s Future,” published October 27, 2015. The article highlights the work of Associate Professor Steven Mankouche, Assistant Professor Anya Sirota, and Assistant Professor Catie Newell in collaboration with other Detroit artists and architects breathing artistic life into the city.

Mankouche’s project involves building a passive greenhouse in the burned out foundation of a 1920s bungalow in Detroit. The project team has erected a slanted south-facing polycarbonate roof within the existing foundation, cladding the exterior with dark charcoal slats (cutoffs from a lumber mill) charred using the ancient Japanese shou-sugi-ban method. Inside, they plan to grow almond, olive, and pomegranate trees, as well as other non-native plants.

“The project is in dialogue with blight in a lot of ways, and how we can deal with blight other than just ripping everything out of the ground and carting it to a landfill,” said Mankouche. After the project is completed, Archolab plans to donate it to a local gardener and evaluate its reproducibility in other places.

Detroit’s 139 square miles are suddenly teeming with contemporary art, design, and development activity. Mankouche’s project is not the only activity. Also reviving the area is the O.N.E. Mile funk revivalist project by Sirota, and the nearby *Alibi..,  Newell’s architecture studio.

Read the article here: http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=8300#.VjfT3kt1KFK

For more on the O.N.E. Mile Project, visit: https://taubmancollege.umich.edu/news/2014/10/28/sirota-and-modcar-launch-mothership