This spring, nine daring CoAD graduate students are expanding the boundaries of the architectural discipline by adopting the studio[Ci] transdisciplinary research and practice method in order to effectively address the complexity of forces and dynamics affecting the built and natural environment, and the pressing need for sustainable interventions at all scales.  Under the guidance of Prof. Constance Bodurow and with the generous assistance of Professor Donald Carpenter, CoE, Director of the Great Lakes Stormwater Management Institute at Lawrence Technological University, and widely published Low Impact Development [LID] expert, our studio design project and program will create a “hybridized architecture” – [green] infrastructure networks and systems - for A.B. Ford Park, a 33 acre riverfront park in the Jefferson Chalmers district, within the Detroit River watershed and the Great Lakes bioregion.  Our client group includes the Director of General Services and the Chief Landscape Architect of the City of Detroit and neighborhood NGOs and residents.

Illustrated here is our progress as of Midterm Review.  Three teams conducted extensive research and then created an ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK comprised of:

CONDITIONS
CRITERIA
CAPACITIES
Teams then identified primary and supportive opportunitites to drive their unique Conceptual + Schematic Design Alternatives. Teams addressed [at minimum] the Recreation Center on site, incorporation of playing fields, and green infrastructure
[LID BMPs].  The three alternatives include:

THE INLET
LE RETOUR HABITAT
[VISUALIZING] BLUEWAYS

City of Detroit