PROFESSOR

Their responses to this pressure are often vague; outlining hands-off “renaturalization strategies”, or referencing ecologically-driven movements such as the Green New Deal and aiding in the fight against climate change. But these corporate plans are almost always set to begin in some distant, unfathomable future. They fail to address what is left behind today; resilient communities that are affected by severe pollution, economic imbalance and environmental injustice. Our studio will be looking at River-Rouge’s outcast and largely inaccessible Belanger Park. The triangular park is clearly defined and constrained by three competing boundaries: a steel manufacturing plant, a soon-to-close coal power plant, and the Detroit River. Taking cues from these three adjoining environments -- steel, power, and water -- we will use a recreational program as a guide to explore proposals informed by material, energetic, or ecological infrastructures. Our goal is to develop projects that exaggerate the park’s relationship to its surroundings, as either a place floating beyond its context or as a place deeply embedded within it.