8Mile Baseline: A Dialectical Image of The Urban Crisis

• Published in: Journal of architectural education (1984) Vol. 69; no. 1; pp. 86 - 97
• Main Author: Ghosn, Rania
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 02.01.2015; Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
• Subjects: Design as Scholarship
• ISSN: 1046-4883; 1531-314X
• DOI: 10.1080/10464883.2015.987079

"This essay argues for the disciplinary significance of narratives of the urban in which recovery is not the a priori denouement of crisis. It proposes to open up the crisis-imagination beyond the prescribed scripts of a constellation of emergency manager, bailout plan, a new Whole Foods, a preserved collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts, and fine-dining options in restored historic buildings. It asks, What matters of the urban do we value beyond land revalorization, building restoration, and urban renewal? And how do we representationally engage potential other Crisis Coda scenarios? Is it possible to conceive the crisis as dark, and darkening further, thus rejecting the false hope offered by positivist scenarios and desperate economic fixes, all without collapsing into despair?" With profile of the 8 Mile Baseline Studio, University of Michigan supervised by the author.