Fourteenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Creating an eco-city is not to invent a new future city. In order to establish a human habitat in balance with nature, we must work within existing cites and legacies of urban form, infrastructures, and social practices, as biophysical, economic, governance, and social contexts for the people, cultures, and practices (Hes& Bush, 2018). Designed by Albert Kahn in 1905, the Packard Automotive Plant in Detroit is an icon of the era of Fordism. The original facility employed 40,000 workers at its peak and was innovative with its use of a large open warehouse floor plan supported by reinforced concrete for its 3.5 million square feet. This once goliath of industry slumped during postwar luxury automotive decline and has been abandoned since 2010. Now, the ‘eye sore’ for Detroit locals serves as a beacon attracting urban explorers, vandals, artists like Banksy, and shows like the GrandTour, that celebrate its haunting beauty. In this design-based research, we use Photogrammetry combined with other digital media, not only to document and represent this legacy site and building of the Packard Automotive Plant, but also to generate a series urban design prototype, showcasing opportunities and possibilities to foster a vibrant community to transform its neighborhood. These prototypes, on multiple urban, architectural, and interior scales, focus on both eco-diversity as well as its integration with diversified building programs, including interchangeable public and private spaces, flexible communal and discrete functions, and multi-scaled vertical urban farming.