MUD2
GRADUATE STUDIO II
MASTER OF URBAN DESIGNMUD 722 - WINTER 2024PROFESSOR
Cyrus PeñarroyoCTRL+ALT+DEL: Countering and Rebooting the University's Innovation Complex
Urban designers have become increasingly enrolled in the development of costly innovation centers, campuses, and districts promising to transform metropolitan areas through the commercialization of new ideas. These enclaves are designed to spur economic growth by bringing together researchers and entrepreneurs into spaces where market-driven creative exchange can occur. Despite their appeal, the efficacy of innovation centers and districts has yet to be substantiated, but that has not stopped prominent institutions and investors from supporting these risky projects. We need not look further than U of M’s controversial, multimillion-dollar plan to erect a shiny new “Center for Innovation” that promises to revitalize downtown Detroit...
A testbed for the development of counterproposals to the UMCI that deploy urban design and digital technology for the common good, this studio questioned innovation and rapid growth as design motivations. If technologies are indicators of shared values, what alternative technological paradigms could we put forward that deemphasize innovation and assign value elsewhere? If embracing technologies associated with the “sharing economy” is also accelerating ecological destruction, what other cooperative technologies could be introduced to promote ecological stewardship instead? If innovation districts are instruments of financial accumulation that bolster the commodification of urban space, what spatial models or practices could be advanced that recognize urban space as a common resource? Ultimately, the studio asked students to deploy urban design in a manner that holds U of M accountable for its behavior in Detroit.