Building Societies: Detroit's Micro Utopian Urbanisms

Abstract

Detroit Afrikan Funkestra performimg at the Oakland Avenue Urban Farm in Detroit’s North End. © Doug Coombe In an off-the-cuff conversation Patrick Bouchain, the French architect and social impact guru, once divulged why working in economically challenged urban scenarios had proved professionally consequential and politically affirming. When things hit rock bottom, he explained, change is imminent. The key for an architect seeking to guide that change is to get involved at the right moment, just as signs of an impending upswing start to show. Tricky as it sounds, design’s agency spikes in that brief and transformative instant when the profession is temporarily liberated from its perennial bonds to capital and power, Bouchain alleged, offering the architect real social sway.