On July 14, the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles opened The Architectural Imagination, an exhibition featuring experimental architectural projects designed for four locations in Detroit—Dequindre Cut/Eastern Market, Mexicantown, the U.S. Post Office on 1401 West Fort St., and the Packard Automotive Plant. These examples are also pertinent to other cities facing issues similar to Detroit.
Detroit was once the world’s automobile capital and home to manufacturers such as Ford, Dodge, Packard, Chrysler, General Motors, and more. The city witnessed a drastic economic decline in the second half of the 20th century, a long decline that resulted in the city's current urban and social issues with urban decay and demographic decline.
In an effort to change the common view of Detroit from a city in ruins to a city filled with potential, The Architectural Imagination explores ways in which architecture can contribute to the city's stabilization, and act as a catalyst for change. For that purpose, 22 architects, selected from a pool of more than 250 applicants, were chosen because they best represent the diversity of the architectural thinking that is going on across the U.S. at this moment. The winners were then divided into 12 teams (three teams worked on each site), and, in close cooperation with the communities, they developed the 12 projects featured in the exhibition.
These projects are intended as a means for triggering conversation about the solutions that best serve Detroit's arising issues. Through creating models, drawings, photographs, videos, and collages, the teams focused their projects on reusing abandoned industrial buildings, regenerating city’s waterfront, renewing infrastructure, and coping with adverse effects of global migration and racial discrimination.
Co-curated by Cynthia Davidson, executive director at Anyone Corp., and Mónica Ponce de León, AIA, dean of the Princeton University School of Architecture and founding principal of MPdL Studio, The Architectural Imagination runs through Sept. 23 at the A+D Museum.
The exhibition was previously featured at the 15th Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2016, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit earlier this year.
