[PROPOSITIONS] ARCH 562 + MUD 722

The Detroit Zoning Department defines “Small Lots” as parcels less than 5000 SF and limits their use to single-family residential. There are approximately 70,000 vacant publicly owned Small Lots in Detroit for sale by the Detroit Land Bank. That is approx. 22% of all R1 and R2 residential lots in Detroit.

This unique landscape presents an interesting opportunity to redevelopment Detroit from the perspective of the individual homeowner. It’s a developmental process that can emerge at a small scale, independent of large financial structures, enabling the homeowner and architect to be the catalyst.

The majority of Small Lots are approx. 30 ft wide. The zoning setbacks required for single-family coupled with the market desire for residential SF yields long and narrow structures. This phenomenon presents an interesting challenge for architects to rethink space, light, circulation and privacy, as well as respond to the programmatic and lifestyle demands of contemporary Detroiters.

The studio explores these opportunities and challenges to offer comprehensive design and developmental strategies for housing on Small Lots. Students were tasked to understand the constraints around the subject which included the study of the Detroit Zoning Ordinance, Detroit residential lot statistics, cost effective construction methods, Building Code, and effective MEP systems. Students were then assigned Small Lots in Detroit and tasked to program and design a 1600 SF residence in response to the learned constraints.