PREFACE
[D]Urbanism began as a desire to question the conventional. Notjust conven-
tional architecture, but question the way an audience processes information.
The infancy of this thesis sprung from investigations into mental illness. How
does Detroit and mental illness relate one may ask? The answer is quite simple.
Neither can be cured. Attempts, at least architectural, are futile. The key is not
a cure but asking the right question. The things contemporary society labels as
"ill" (in need of fixing) are actually just deviations from the "norm," stigmatized
as other. The individual is a product of power, and one's identity and self concept
is created by where he∕she locates his∕herself according to power. Mental illness
is a disruption in that alignment.
Detroit was the epitome of societal expectations∕"the norm" at it's industrial
height, but as those expectations changed Detroit became more and more dislo-
cated from that image or "deviant." Now Detroit suffocates in its own attempts
to realign with the contemporary ego. Detroit's is not defective, it just needs to
adjust its constant.
Desires are that which call into question the established order of society, and
Detroit is bursting with them; yet, they are repressed for the conviction of an ex-
ternal self. Release the desires.
[vi]