DEI MOTOWN

A Retroactive Arcology for Detroit

Utopian megaprojects of the 20th century, from Le Corbusier’s Ville
Radieuse to Paulo Soleri’s Linear City, are too often negated for their
megalomaniacal, individualistic plan for the future. With the tabula rasa
as their method for organization, such projects lack the contradictory,
contextual, democratic, “organic” process of city building.

Contextual, yet admittedly still megalomaniacal, this project uses the

city of Detroit as a found object (rather than a blank canvas), forming
the basis for a retroactive arcology that redefines urban density and
circulation. The central building district, a skyscraper-graveyard of
immense stratified floor area, is renewed and transformed by elevated
thoroughfares and programmatic diversity into a compact, self-sustaining
urban entity.
Setup: Node Cities

The experiment begins with an act of

urban contraction: as the city rapidly
loses population with the decline of the
automobile empire, Detroit is restructured
around a series of nodes.
Population departs
from the feeble,
dwindling fabric of
suburban lots, to
reinhabit structures
of massive bulk
(factories,business
districts, and mega-
‘MOTOR CITY’
malls).
Former components
in the machine
of the Motor City
are transformed
into independent
arcologies that
build on the unique
possibilities of
their preexisting
structures.

The salvage industry flourishes as the

city dismantles the uninhabited zones
between nodes. Detroit becomes a center,
at least temporarily, for precious metals
and recycled materials. Eventually, the
regrowth of forest around the nodes leads
to a budding lumber industry.
‘DEMOLITION CITY’
Case Study: Central Business District

Decentralized Network

Distributed Lattice Network

The central business district is reinterpreted in section. In the old CBD, circulation
between structures was limited to the street level, reinforcing corporate isolation and
preventing interaction across lofted spaces. The oppressive, inefficient, and energy-
intensive elevator is now replaced by a sloping viaduct that connects seamlessly to types
of ground transport (rail, pedestrian, bicycle), and that makes movement between elevated
levels possible. This extension of the street coils around the CBD, crossing itself several
times to form a lattice-work of external movement.
 SKY FARMS

CIVIC/FLATS

VIADUCT COIL

INDUSTRIAL BAND
METRO-COIL MAP

A coiling metro line runs in a continuous, self-

intersecting loop. Station stops are named by
GEOTHERMAL TUBES altitude.

The new topography opens up the office towers

to new programmatic possibilities. As the viaduct
punctures each tower, it disrupts and redefines
previously homogenous commercial space. Lateral
communication at multiple levels brings an urbanity
to the former-stratified, isolated spaces. Vertical
mechanical conduits, once limiting the floorplans
of each tower to a repeating type, can now be re-
routed laterally, allowing for a greater diversity
of spaces and programs.

UNROLLED SECTION
 SKY FARMS

STUDIOS/FLATS
CIVIC/COMMERCIAL
FACTORY BELT
JUNK DEPOT/LUMBERYARDS

Notions of center and periphery are applied in section: civic, commercial, and educational
facilities stand about the grand viaduct, the piano nobile of the city. Apartments,
offices and studios take advantage of the light above. Traditionally peripheral programs,
agriculture, industry and energy, are located on the opposite extremes of the section.
Industries form a band of continuous activity below the coil; hydroponic farms proliferate
the highest strata; and the town’s energy is supplied by wind at the peaks and geothermal
energy in the caissons of the skyscrapers.

HYDROPONIC
SKY FARMS

WORKSHOPS