PROJECT INFO
Studio 5, Fall 2015
Brightmoor, Detroit
Partner: Nick Raabe
PROJECT STATEMENT
We hoped to develop a low-cost, systematic approach to repopulating a vacant neighborhood with a focus on sustainability and agriculture.
MODULAR HOUSING
Brightmoor, Detroit
CONCEPT: This neighborhood, in its prime, largely offered housing to factory workers. Since then, it has become vacant and impoverished. In order for redevelopment to occur, it needs to be affordable. In order for redevelopment to sustain, occupants need to take pride in maintaining it.
MODULARITY: By embracing the spirit of Detroit, a nearby vacant factory could be re-purposed for building modular parts, thus giving jobs to local skilled workers. Once moved to the site, the pieces could be assembled easily, quickly, and cheaply by unskilled workers, thus involving the community that will live there.
VARIATION: Modules are built on a grid system so that they can pair up in any way while still offering an open floor plan. Roof profiles can vary by installing them with different lengths of supports. Designs can be big or small, single-family or multi-family, simple or complex.
SUSTAINABILITY: By designing an entire neighborhood to be sustainable, occupants can develop stronger relationships through communal farming and markets, have less energy and upkeep demands, and greatly lessen their impact on the environment.