RESEARCh projects

People, Place and Policy: Historic Development and Current Typology of Community Spaces in Detroit

In the city of Detroit, policy interventions, public life and urban design are intertwined. Civic spaces that are unique to the Detroit landscape have evolved overtime in response to political momentum (or lack thereof) and design directions, informing and informed by community leadership and human use. This project tracks the evolution of three central types of urban spaces in Detroit, documenting morphology alongside contemporaneous social, economic and cultural contexts that intersect with urban space. This research and graphic documentation seeks to link the braided narratives of design, policy and community experience in the historical development of three spatial typologies – commercial corridors and streetscapes, the vacant lot as neighborhood landscape, and the changing site of the community center from civic structure to repurposed residential space – all of which are central to urban form and public life in the city. This work is couched in a larger narrative of urban development and design in an industrial legacy city, including histories of racist policy, deep disinvestment and outmigration that have had a profound impact on the spatial experience of residents in the city. This past has also informed the role of design in the formulation of iterative public spaces. Research methods include: archival research of news clippings, city policy, urban photography, and drawings; graphic documentation and analysis of typological change over time; and testimony from community leaders and designers.

Funded by UDM Faculty Research Award.

feminist urban space: The Role of Women in Community Design and the Production of Public place

Historically, women have been associated with the domestic realm. However, in community neighborhood matriarchs operate outside the home, show up to workshops and oversee engagement. These same women program, and sometimes police, local public spaces. In turn, the community development nonprofit field is by and large led by women, and a new generation of female landscape and architectural designers is engaging in this complex work. Simultaneously, female political leaders across the Americas and beyond are championing spaces of care and intentional places for women in the contemporary city. At the 2024 World Urban Forum in Cairo, thought leaders converged to consider feminist cities and the role of urban design in the curation of communities of care. The former (female, queer) Mayor Claudia Lopez of Bogota spoke of her Care Block initiative, which created government-sponsored spaces across the city that support unpaid female caregivers through consolidated services. In Mexico City, PILARES, launched by then-Head of Government Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo in 2019, are community centers across the city. In Detroit, residents, nonprofits, designers and city officials – all women – are collaborating on community hubs that support neighborhood needs. In these examples, female-led policy, design and activism intersect in urban spaces curated for women and by women. In these cases, women are both making space and taking space – and changing the fabric of the city. This work is intersectional, influencing how we define the public realm, neighborhood narratives, spatial justice, and access to the city, sometimes subversively and sometimes through formal channels. This project will present a series of case studies that unpack the contemporary role of womxn policymakers, designers and users in the production and appropriation of public space across Bogota, Mexico City and Detroit.

Funded by UDM Women’s and Gender Studies Feminist Scholarship Grant.

Community-engaged design teaching

This work seeks to establish Standards of Care in the practice of community-engaged design teaching. The principles under development are a foundational set of guidelines for community-engaged design faculty, partners and administrators. They are by no means exhaustive but rather provide a framework from which robust engaged-partnerships and learning can develop. Organized in terms of partnerships, pedagogy and administration, standards of care aim to support and protect community partners, provide scaffolding for faculty to engage, and responsibly invite students into community conversations. They provide guardrails for this work, including how we show up, build relationships, and build toward an ethical and leaderful community of practice. In collaboration with Shalini Agrawal, Alexis Gregory and Julia Grinkrug and in consultation with allied peers and partners, this work includes supportive framing and resources for those participating in community-engaged teaching.

Funded by the ACSA Equity Fellowship.