LTU '06 Masters Class - Team A

Lawrence Technological University College of Architecture & Design Guest Professor - Raveevarn Choksombatchai Advisor - Christian Unverzagt

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Abstract - Gathering

  • The relationship between the population of Detroit to that of the Detroit River is in a state of constant fluxuation since the origin of the city itself...this relationship predates any formal decleration of political power to an era when gathering by the river was a means to sustain a quality of life.
  • In searching into the relationships between gathering and community, the relationships between man and river provides for a vast amount of research data, charts, and studies that can be dated back from current events to events in the early 1800s.
  • It is in the moments which are effecting today's Detroit that this investigation is aiming to relate back into the diverse methods of gathering in the city of Detroit.
  • Living through the changes occuring "to the river" and "by the river" can be observered in the levels of fresh water flowing through the river past the metropolis...
  • "...water levels are related to habitat for all species including human"

Nautical Chart 14848 (Detroit River)

Soundings of Detroit River between Windmill Pointe and Fort Wayne.
http://205.156.4.52/cgi-bin/EyeSpy.dll?MfcISAPICommand=getbrwx&img=D%3A%2FEyeSpy%2Fimages%2FOnline_Chart_Viewer%2F14848.axs&wsx=650&wsy=500&alx=5841&aly=500&rf=1&buttons=%2Fcgi-bin%2FEyeSpyResources%2Fbuttons&alig=0&contenttype=image%2Fjpeg&eyespyc0009300000.x=29&eyespyc0009300000.y=16

Youth Population


Youth Populaion Migration (1990-2000)

Fort Wayne - Detroit River (Water Level)


Fort Wayne Water Levels
(06-0401 to 06-0501)

Windmill Pointe - Detroit River (Water Level)



Windmill Pointe (06-0401 to 06-0501)

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Detroit River Water Levels...
http://glakesonline.nos.noaa.gov/monitor.html

Detroit River Video Link
...check out this link to the
EPA / Detroit Water & Sewer Dept/ and University of Windsor, Ontario joint project:
"Evaluating Ecosystem Results of PCB Control Measures Within the Detroit River- Western Lake Erie Basin"
...the video about the sedimetation has some cool aerial video from 2003 and shows the river from the Canada / US perspectives
http://www.tellusnews.com/ahr/epa/index.shtml#video1

Detroit River International Comprehensive Conservation Plan
...a link to the history and efforts to develop an international relationship between man and the natural environment
...chcek the link to the pdf for the plan and then see appendix 'j' for river information in the downtown area
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/planning/detroitriver/index.html

Research-
Detroit river currents
Fish patterns
boat race track
shipping channels...

Monday, May 29, 2006

Urban beach
From Wikipedia


Temporary urban beaches and art installationsA well known art gallery, PS1, had an art installation in the summer of 2002, to explore issues of privacy and space, through the juxtaposition of the incongruous elements of beachlike waterplay space within the formality of a museum/gallery:

...Urban Beach addresses concepts of surface and sensuality, redefining shade, privacy, and space

One of the busiest streets in downtown Paris was also turned into a temporary urban beach.On a busy downtown Toronto Street, a hot tub was recently setup right next to the sidewalk. Part of the fun is challenging people to overcome their fear of being seen in a bathing suit, on a busy street in the restaurant district where people are normally wearing more formal attire. To further suggest public bathing as performance art, participants (many of them passers by who could choose to join in the fun) were fitted with brainwave electrodes, which enabled their brainwaves to generate music and control the lighting.

A number of urban beach art installations were made as a form of social inquiry into the boundaries that exist between public and private space. This helped to combine fear of water, fear of electricity, fear of being seen in a bathing suit, and stage fright, into chance to dare passers by to join in a thrilling spectacle. Stage lighting, controlled by the brainwaves, adds to the notion of urban bathing as performance art.




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