The Motown Movement

Before we visited Detroit as architecture students, we expected to see an exceptional phenomenon happening: a metropolitan city in full decay. Instead, we saw a city putting itself back together and recovering its lost glory. What a resilience. This inexhaustible dedication inspired us as young architecture students.

When the financial crisis of 2008 forced the municipality of Detroit to file bankruptcy, it looked like the battle was lost for the city that has been plagued by setbacks. The effects of this catastrophic event are still very present in everyday life: broken-down buildings, empty neighbourhoods and high criminality rates.Therefore, it’s not entirely inexplicable that outsiders think of Detroit as a ghost town. Nonetheless, the inhabitants today will argue very differently. Detroit has managed to do the unthinkable: turn the end of days into a laboratory of the future.

The vast increase of people abandoning their homes has created heaps of open lots and left behind a great amount of recyclable materials. Fortunately, it didn’t take long before residents started to recognize its opportonities. Only in the last few years several great urban initiatives led by entrepreneurial citizens emerged, such as urban farms, art installations, communal sport fields, recycling projects, and more. This powerful adaptiveness of the people of Detroit proves the city to be future proof.

Inspired by the Motor City’s DIY spirit, we see great potential in implementing modern but down to earth technologies in the current reconstruction. We try to close the gap between theory and practice in a very prosperous though very polluting country in the world. Moreover, now is the right time for a bigger impact: during the rebirth of a city, adapting to modern values and ideas. Like when learning a language, it’s more effective when it’s tought to a child than to an adult.

By developing methods for transforming a traditional american suburban house into a self-sufficient home, we aim to inspire other homeowners to do the same. By showing our exemplary housing project we push other people to act and follow through their ideas for change; turning an initiative into a movement.