detroit MIGHIGAN
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
Shin SHIN: “Up Close” is a proposal for the revitalization of a vacant commercial storefront and adjacent lot in East Warren, Detroit.
- Shin SHIN, “Up Close: Detroit”, Diagram
- Shin SHIN, “Up Close: Detroit”, Diagram
- Shin SHIN, “Up Close: Detroit”, Plan
- Shin SHIN, “Up Close: Detroit”, Perspective
The scope of work includes a gut renovation and temporary installation that allows for a range of programmatic scenarios (lecture, exhibition, pop-up store, cafe, etc.). The underlying theme is to provide a platform for visitors to engage with the future of Detroit neighborhoods.
As Detroit progresses through an era of rapid development, it is important to foster a symbiotic relationship between the historic and the contemporary. This proposal reinterprets the architectural icons of Detroit by scaling their ornamental details into a series of playful follies. In addition to the beloved buildings of Downtown, we also highlighted local treasures like the Cadieux Cafe and Alger Theater - neighborhood landmarks that define the culture of East Warren. By bringing typically out-of-reach elements into an inhabitable or larger-than-life scale, the project encourages the public to tangibly interact with Detroit’s icons in new and unforeseen ways. The follies break apart and remix to form new compositions, adapt to different functions, and ultimately take on new contemporary meanings.
“Up Close” uses a kit of parts composed of eight primary forms built on castors that can split, rotate and recombine to create programmatic flexibility. Each piece is constructed from plywood sheathed in a multicolored rubber mat material made from recycled tires. On the adjacent exterior site, the forms spread out more freely as a field, a condition that is reinforced by painted ground graphics.
sP: Who or what influenced this project?
SS: Ettore Sottsass, Wes Anderson, and the historic architecture of Downtown Detroit - including but not limited to: Penobscot Building (Wirt Rowland), Guardian Building (Wirt Rowland), Stott Building (Donaldson & Meier), Book Tower (Louis Kamper), One Woodward Avenue (Minoru Yamasaki)
sP: What were you reading/listening/watching?
SS: Log, Paprika!, Detour Detroit, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
sP: Whose work is currently on your radar?
SS: Doug Aitken, Young Ayata, Kevin Daly Architects, Sharif Lynch Architecture, Ganas MFG, Detroit Design 139
