Make/shift - a creative community project

This thesis project is a contextual response, using physical, social and economic conditions of a site in a particularly provoking city to explore spatial-programmatic architectural responses. The Creative Community is a response to the problems prevalent in post-industrial cities like Detroit; it is a city with an exceptionally striking building stock that lacks social and economic prosperity. Blight is compounded by low density, however this research suggests that this cycle could possibly be broken by grassroots, nodal intensification at the neighbourhood level. Built precedents and industrial city research will form the dialogue of the thesis. A response formulated to engage with a 1930’s factory and its surroundings will be the culminating Design Project. This thesis project attempts to crystallize an architectonic vision that highlights the industrial heritage of the city while projecting future economic trends in the knowledge industry by tapping into the creative energy of a historically vibrant community.