our own system

Theme! It’s Detroit Day here. Pure synchronicity.

This is a cool project from architecture fellows at the university up north (my Ohio State pride shining through):

Five research fellows from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning transformed an abandoned house in Hamtramck (which is basically Detroit) into their very own lab rat. The recent architecture grads gave it new stairs, walls, glazing, rooms — the works. But it wasn’t some heroic attempt to build shelter for down and outs, which a lot of architecture schools are into these days. It was a pure design exercise — one aimed at rethinking the conventions of a single-family home — and it shows how much creativity you can draw from the great arsenal of Detroit’s ruins. (Fast Company)

So here’s the far-fetched thought: transition a hospital that has been closed into a similar project. Turn it into a “try new ideas here” facility such as improvements in patient care or renovation ideas to retrofit older buildings for new technology or etc.

This might be one of those “propose a solution before defining the problem” situations—but I think what they did/are doing in Detroit is/was a neat idea.