University of Detroit Mercy
School of Architecture
Stephen Vogel, FAIA, Dean
**Abstract**
Detroit [Re]Turns to Nature
Detroit is perhaps the ultimate post-industrial city. It has suffered social and physical deterioration at a scale unique in the world with the possible exception of cities ravaged by war or the depopulation of former socialist cities. The city has lost half its former population of 2 million inhabitants and one-third of its 140 square mile area is either completely vacant or occupied with deteriorated vacant structures. Two graphic illustration of the abandonment of the city is the disinterment and relocation of hundreds of human remains a year from Detroit cemeteries to the suburbs; and the persistence of nature as it fills the physical void of the city. This presentation will review the causes of this phenomenon and will look for the cultural roots on which to establish a new sustainable community in the lower east side of Detroit called Adamah [of the earth]. Along the way, the lecture will look at both architecture and art in the context of the “shrinking city”.