PROFESSOR

IAN DONALDSON

STUDIO

STACKED SPACE

This studio asked students to cast aside nostalgia to critically consider the scale and premise of the Main Branch of the Detroit Public Library. Students worked to rethink civic institutionality today to reconsider the library of the future, breaking down typological orthodoxies. By STACKing, layering, carving or sculpting we will organize future spatial possibilities into/through/onto the existing library framework as a new civic morphology.

The public library of today has evolved beyond its typological role as a repository of knowledge. The Detroit Public Library already engages a mission that was once the primary purview of a variety of social services. In Detroit, access to public services and resources in proximity to the city center needs protecting. However, there is intense pressure on this institution as 17 of 21 library branch face closure, further reducing access to public space in a city paradoxically littered with open space.

Through this systemic analyses of precedents, libraries but also inventive cultural institutions, students built a body of research and established a critical lens with which to view the Classical Cass Gilbert building and speculate a radical transformation of the building and site. The final projects position questions of value creation, universal access, 'expanded sustainability' and resilience to the commercial tranformation marching out from Downtown Detroit.

︎︎︎BACK ︎

JULIA MCMORROUGH

Elliot Smithberger

Ruiying Zhang

MATIAS DEL CAMPO

Dowdle, Ibrahim, Zhang Fahmy, Kamhawi, Pandey

IAN DONALDSON

Gort-Cabeza de Vaca
Anahita Mojahed

DAWN GILPIN

Sang Won Kang
Xin Li

PETER HALQUIST

Chung-Han (Joanne)

Chengdai Yang

PERRY KULPER

Ghassan Alserayhi
Eilís Finnegan

ANN LUI

Will Kirsch
Kendra Soler

STEVEN MANKOUCHE

Stephen Corcoran
Aric Reed

NEAL ROBINSON

Connor Tuthill

Eduardo Villamor

JON RULE

Richard Hua
Qianwei Zhang

CHRISTIAN UNVERZAGT

Siyuan (Elaine) Cheng
Vance Smith Jr

KATHY VELIKOV

Emma Powers
Brian Smith

STUDENT WORK

ANAHITA MOJAHED

“CORRODING BARRIERS”

Reimagining the main branch of the Detroit Public Library, this project aims to break down the existing physical and visual barriers that hinder community engagement with the library. Despite facing hardships of physical inaccessibility and inadequate funding, the Detroit Public Library is one of the last free institutions that provides a tremendous variety of resources to its constituents. Pulling on the strengths of the library's programs this project prioritizes enhancing community access to resources, making the library a community resource destination. A space that is welcoming and reflective of the city it serves, that can evolve with time to serve the needs of the library and its users.