The Forgetting Machine: Notes Toward a History of Detroit

"What does it add up to, all this abandonment of lives and buildings, neighborhoods and property? It doesn’t seem to add up to anything... This city is never coming back; whatever happens next will be without precedent because the context of city no longer applies in this place where history has finally run out." Here Jerry Herron reflects on Detroit, tracking the excesses of ruin porn, the decline of Hudson's, and the hopefulness of a retrofitted carpark in a gutted theater.
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WILL HOLMAN

Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Design

Will Holman has studied and worked at Arcosanti, Rural Studio and YouthBuild. He describes the experiences as hard to quantify. "I’ve dug septic lines, chain-sawed tornado debris, shoveled gravel... I’ve code-checked drawings, drafted into the night, surveyed sites. But the real results are intangible — relationships, experiences, memories, lessons learned." Yet Holman thinks the profession has paid little attention to how architects might "put together a career in social design."
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DAVE JORDANO & AARON ROTHMAN

Detroit Re-Photography

In the early 1970s photographer Dave Jordano documented a series of buildings and places in his native Detroit; in 2010 he returned to the same spots. The result is the Detroit Rephotography Survey, selections of which we are pleased to present here. As our photo editor Aaron Rothman notes, Jordano's then-and-now images "implicate us in the changes they depict," and work as a kind of antidote to the cool aestheticism of ruin porn.
READ MORE

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Download a PDF copy >>

Learn to be a design critic through SVA's D-Crit program.Design as subject matter, criticism as a literary genre and the range of tools with which to practice design criticism.
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MICHAEL P. BRANCH

The Hills Are Alive

How do you solve a problem like Maria? Environmental writer Michael Branch describes a day hike in the Great Basin near his Nevada home, where his young daughters reenact the opening scene of The Sound of Music. Along the way he reflects not only on the difference between the brown hills of the arid West and the green Alpine meadows of the famous movie (which he despises) but also on how deeply the "stylized, controlled and color-corrected representations" of nature in photography and film have "conditioned our landscape aesthetics."
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How to turn a lackluster midwestern campus into an international cultural destination.
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We are engaged in a new paradigm for the teaching and research of design in the 21st century. Located within one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing universities and set in the context of one of the country’s most rapidly urbanizing metropolises, The Design School offers degrees in architecture, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture, urban design, and visual communication (graphic) design. Our school brings together all of these design disciplines, with one unified faculty, working together to create a new vision of how we educate the next generation of designers. We are the most comprehensive and collaborative design school in the country.

RECENT BOOKS RECEIVED

American Glamour
Alice T. Friedman

Reading the American Landscape: An Index of Books and Images
Lex ter Braak, David Hamers, Anne Hoogewoning, Erik de Jong, Frank van der Salm, Dirk Sijmons and Hanneke Schreiber

Boomtown 2050: Scenarios for a Rapidly Growing City
Richard Weller


WEEKLY EMAIL: JANUARY 18, 2012
FEATURED THIS WEEK : JERRY HERRON The Forgetting Machine: Notes Toward a History of Detroit "What does it add up to, all this abandonment of lives and buildings, neighborhoods and property? It doesn’t seem to add up to anything... This city is never coming back; whatever happens next will be without precedent because the context of city no longer applies in this place where history has finally run out." Here Jerry Herron reflects on Detroit, tracking the excesses of ruin porn, the decline of Hudson's, and the hopefulness of a retrofitted carpark in a gutted theater. READ MORE
WILL HOLMAN Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Design Will Holman has studied and worked at Arcosanti, Rural Studio and YouthBuild. He describes the experiences as hard to quantify. "I’ve dug septic lines, chain-sawed tornado debris, shoveled gravel... I’ve code-checked drawings, drafted into the night, surveyed sites. But the real results are intangible — relationships, experiences, memories, lessons learned." Yet Holman thinks the profession has paid little attention to how architects might "put together a career in social design." READ MORE DAVE JORDANO & AARON ROTHMAN Detroit Re-Photography In the early 1970s photographer Dave Jordano documented a series of buildings and places in his native Detroit; in 2010 he returned to the same spots. The result is the Detroit Rephotography Survey, selections of which we are pleased to present here. As our photo editor Aaron Rothman notes, Jordano's then-and-now images "implicate us in the changes they depict," and work as a kind of antidote to the cool aestheticism of ruin porn. READ MORE FROM OUR SPONSORS Being sustainable has never been so profitable. See how the country's most innovative companies are improving their bottom line by staying the course on sustainability. Look into Sappi's paper mills that are setting a new standard for environmental responsibility. Find out more about Sappi here >> Order a copy of eQ003 >> Download a PDF copy >> Learn to be a design critic through SVA's D-Crit program.Design as subject matter, criticism as a literary genre and the range of tools with which to practice design criticism. Watch videos of presentations by the Class of 2011 >> The D-Crit Program >> SVA Website >> MICHAEL P. BRANCH The Hills Are Alive How do you solve a problem like Maria? Environmental writer Michael Branch describes a day hike in the Great Basin near his Nevada home, where his young daughters reenact the opening scene of The Sound of Music. Along the way he reflects not only on the difference between the brown hills of the arid West and the green Alpine meadows of the famous movie (which he despises) but also on how deeply the "stylized, controlled and color-corrected representations" of nature in photography and film have "conditioned our landscape aesthetics." READ MORE		BECOME A FAN ON FACEBOOK \| FOLLOW US ON TWITTER The place to go for the latest and most trusted information regarding sustainability in our industry. eQ from Sappi >> D-Crit: Design as subject matter. Criticism as literary genre. Learn at SVA >> Jessica Helfand's book was a NYTimes book of the year. Buy it here >> All kids deserve a shot at their American dream >> PLACES ARCHIVE: WINTER 2005 Campus Design as Critical Practice How to turn a lackluster midwestern campus into an international cultural destination. READ MORE PARTNER SCHOOL Arizona State University, The Design School We are engaged in a new paradigm for the teaching and research of design in the 21st century. Located within one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing universities and set in the context of one of the country’s most rapidly urbanizing metropolises, The Design School offers degrees in architecture, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture, urban design, and visual communication (graphic) design. Our school brings together all of these design disciplines, with one unified faculty, working together to create a new vision of how we educate the next generation of designers. We are the most comprehensive and collaborative design school in the country. RECENT BOOKS RECEIVED American Glamour Alice T. Friedman Reading the American Landscape: An Index of Books and Images Lex ter Braak, David Hamers, Anne Hoogewoning, Erik de Jong, Frank van der Salm, Dirk Sijmons and Hanneke Schreiber Boomtown 2050: Scenarios for a Rapidly Growing City Richard Weller
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