The Motor City has 33,529 vacant houses. To most of the country, that’s

33,529 reasons to wring its hands over What To Do About Detroit. To

architects, it’s a gold mine.

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.



The fellows bought the house at a foreclosure

auction for a whopping $500. It was literally a shell — no doors, no

windows, no electricity, no plumbing, no stairs. There she is. What a beaut!

This is Thomas Moran’s Tables and Chairs. They’re actually meant

to double as a display case and stairs:



Meredith Miller gave the building a fancy new door. You

can adjust it depending on how much privacy you want. Here’s the indoor

view:



And the outdoor view: