Title

The Company: Carnival Urbanism for Shrinking Cities

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Brandon Peterson, Syracuse University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.ARCH I

Date

Spring 2011

Keywords

Detroit

Language

English

Disciplines

Architecture

Description/Abstract

THE COMPANY is a framework of urban intervention that seeks to stabilize shrinking neighborhoods through a large number of small-scale, temporary occupations of vacated buildings. Its process of quickly phasing in architecture and program over time, through testing and experimentation, is preferable to the slow, top-down planning of large-scale, more permanent initiatives. Its identity is that of spectacle and pleasure. Its architects are designers, developers, planners, sponsors, eventholders and actors.

The historic neighborhood of Brush Park in Detroit, Michigan is the first testing ground for THE COMPANY’s interventions. Its forty-four abandoned buildings will be adapted from post-industrial leftovers into catalytic nodes of community interaction. Their successes and failures will inform future COMPANY decisions about architectural form, program, site, business and pleasure.

Additional Information

Brandon Peterson, advised by Julia Czerniak and Jonathan Massey.

Recommended Citation

Peterson, Brandon, "The Company: Carnival Urbanism for Shrinking Cities" (2011). Architecture Master Theses. 2.
https://surface.syr.edu/architecture_mtheses/2