Images - 5th Forum – “Infrastructure Space”

Leading thinkers from architecture, civil engineering, urban planning, social science, business, and industry from 40 countries met in Detroit at the 5th International LafargeHolcim Forum on April 7-9, 2016.

Welcome Dinner at the Westin Cadillac Book Hotel for the 5th International LafargeHolcim Forum held in Detroit, April 2016.

Welcome reception in the Venetian Room at the Westin Cadillac Book Hotel for the 5th International LafargeHolcim Forum held in Detroit, April 2016.

Participants of the 5th International LafargeHolcim Forum are welcomed at the Community Arts Auditorium on the Campus of the Wayne State University in Detroit.

Student Poster Competition: Students of affiliated universities explain their submitted projects to attendees.

Student Poster Competition: Students of affiliated universities explain their submitted projects to attendees.

During the breaks, attendees evaluate project posters which have been submitted by students of affiliated universities.

Student Poster Competition: Students of affiliated universities explain their submitted projects to attendees.

Student Poster Competition: Students of affiliated universities explain their submitted projects to attendees.

Student Poster Competition: Students of affiliated universities explain their submitted projects to attendees.

Some 300 participants attended the 5th International LafargeHolcim Forum for Sustainable Construction which took place April 7-9, 2016 in Detroit, MI, USA and focussed on the topic of "Infrastructure Space".

Student Poster Competition: Students of affiliated universities explain their submitted projects to attendees.

Student Poster Competition: Students of affiliated universities explain their submitted projects to attendees.

Student Poster Competition: During the breaks, attendees visit the exhibition and want to learn more about the students and their projects.

Participants use the breaks to

5th International LafargeHolcim Forum - Student Poster Competition: Students of affiliated universities explain their submitted projects to attendees.

Student Poster Competition: Students of affiliated universities explain their submitted projects to attendees.

Student Poster Competition: Students of affiliated universities explain their submitted projects to attendees.

Robert Fishman (left), Dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA and Eric Olsen, CEO of LafargeHolcim, Switzerland opened the 5th LafargeHolcim Forum for Sustainable Construction held in Detroit in April 2016.

Eric Olsen, Chairman of the Steering Committee of the LafargeHolcim Foundation Board delivering his welcome address: "Infrastructure is a common good in an ecology of interrelationships vital to enhancing lives".

Robert Fishman, acting Dean of the Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning at the University of Michigan welcomes the participants to the 5th International LafargeHolcim Forum on “Infrastructure Space” held April 2016 in Detroit, USA.

Reed Kroloff, former Director, Cranbrook Academy of Art & Museum, USA

Architect and global infrastructure researcher Keller Easterling, Professor at Yale University, USA developed a conceptual framework based on her research of Extrastatecraft as a keynote speaker at the LafargeHolcim Forum 2016.

Keller Easterling, Professor at Yale University, USA

Keller Easterling, Professor at Yale University, USA

“Risk can best be adapted to and mitigated at a metro/regional scale; and this is where we must act, despite the added complexity. Water, as the number one global risk, is at the heart of this uncertain future.” - Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Netherlands at the LafargeHolcim Forum #InfraSpace16

“Water, as the number one global risk, is at the heart of this uncertain future” –Ambassador for Water, Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, the Netherlands.

Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: "Understanding Africa’s Infrastructure Appetite is important for the region’s future".

Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

“With the rise of the city, urban infrastructure is key to sustainability” - Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

“Infrastructure is the opportunity to impact profoundly on citizens and sustainability.” - Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

Four concurrent workshops addressed the topic of “Infrastructure Space” by investigating different themes at the architectural, metropolitan, territorial and planetary scale.

“What would it mean to think of technology as a precondition of design and not just an addition?” – Laurent Stalder, Chair for the Theory of Architecture, Department of Architecture, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Switzerland.

“It is no longer possible to consider infrastructure as compartmentalized and bounded systems.” – Geoffrey Thün, Associate Professor of Architecture, Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Michigan, USA.

“How can redirecting theoretical, practical and speculative positions Producing alternate forms of civic engagement and social imaginaries?” – Jesse LeCavalier, Assistant Professor, College of Architecture & Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA.

“Planetary urbanization requires new strategies for urban research” – Neil Brenner, Professor of Urban Theory & Director of the Urban Theory Lab, Harvard GSD (USA) at the 5th LafargeHolcim Forum.

From manual to digital and vice versa workshop at the 6th International LafargeHolcim Forum in Cairo, 2019.

Workshop sessions were held in the McGregor Memorial Conference Center. Designed by world-renowned architect Minoru Yamasaki and completed in 1958, the two-story center is a highly sculptured building with meeting rooms and reception space that overlook a lobby accented by free-standing columns and partitions highlighted with teakwood. The magnificent atrium design provides abundant natural light and the building earned a First Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects.

Jerry Herron, Founding Dean, Irvin D Reid Honors College, Wayne State University (WSU), Detroit, USA introduces guests to the murals of Diego Rivera Court at the Detroit Institute of Arts, providing a poetic contexualisation of the host city of the 5th International LafargeHolcim Forum.

Diego Rivera Court at the Detroit Institute of Arts: the series of frescoes painted by the Mexican artist 1932-33, consists of twenty-seven panels depicting industry at the Ford Motor Company, and received National Historic Landmark Status in 2014.

Infrastructure Space: Architectural Scale

Salmaan Craig, Lecturer in Environmental Technology, Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University, USA during the workshop Architectural scale: Absorbing contemporary technologies.

Each of the four workshops at the 5th LafargeHolcim Forum were organized as two half-day sessions and examined reorienting human habitation of the planet through infrastructure at four different scales: architectural, metropolitan, territorial, and planetary.

Ashok B Lall, Principal of Ashok B Lall Architects in New Delhi, India comments during the workshop Architectural scale: Absorbing contemporary technologies.

Infrastructure Space: Metropolitan Scale

Metropolitan Scale workshop: How can redirecting theoretical, practical and speculative positions produce alternate forms of civic engagement and social imaginaries? Jesse LeCavalier, Professor, College of Architecture & Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology at LafargeHolcim Forum.

Rahul Mehrotra, Chair of the Department of Urban Planning & Design, Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University, USA during the workshop Metropolitan scale: Expanding toolsets for urban infrastructure.

Workshopping design futures using extrafactory simulators during “Metropolitan scale: Expanding toolsets for urban infrastructure”.

Clare Lyster, Principal, Clare Lyster Urbanism And Architecture (CLUAA), USA during the workshop Metropolitan scale: Expanding toolsets for urban infrastructure.

Workshopping design futures using extrafactory simulators during “Metropolitan scale: Expanding toolsets for urban infrastructure”.

Infrastructure Space: Territorial Scale

Sven Stremke, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, Wageningen University, Netherlands during the workshop Territorial scale: Recognizing politico-environmental ecologies.

Geoffrey Thün, Associate Professor of Architecture, Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Michigan, USA during the workshop Territorial scale: Recognizing politico-environmental ecologies.

Infrastructure Space: Planetary Scale

Moderator of the Workshop “Planetary Scale” - Neil Brenner, Professor of Urban Theory & Director of the Urban Theory Lab, Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University, USA

Discussions during the workshop Planetary scale: Exploring patterns of worldwide urbanization.

Neil Brenner, Professor of Urban Theory & Director of the Urban Theory Lab, Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University, USA during the workshop Planetary scale: Exploring patterns of worldwide urbanization.

Stephen Henderson, Editorial Page Editor, Detroit Free Press, Detroit, USA

Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Henderson, Editorial Page Editor of the Detroit Free Press, Detroit, USA: "The abandonment and potential rebirth of one Detroit neighborhood can deepen our understanding of urban sustainability.”

Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Henderson, Editorial Page Editor of the Detroit Free Press, Detroit, USA: "The abandonment and potential rebirth of one Detroit neighborhood can deepen our understanding of urban sustainability.”

Sarah Nichols, Academic Committee (AC) Scientific Coordinator, LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction at the 2nd Holcim Roundtable “Re-materializing construction”, held in Einsiedeln, Switzerland.

Introducing the Mobile Workshop: Sarah Nichols, Detroit native and PhD candidate at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture gta, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Switzerland.

The architectural scale mobile workshop at the LafargeHolcim Forum 2016 explores the infrastructure of dwelling through three projects in the metro Detroit area: the Lafayette Park superblock, the Dymaxion house, and Cranbrook’s campus in Bloomfield Hills as a whole learning environment.

Lafayette Park is a high rise residential neighborhood east of Downtown Detroit. The area is part of the Mies van der Rohe Residential District listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The mobile workshop included visits to infrastructure of dwellings at sites in the metro Detroit area.

Lafayette Park is a high rise residential neighborhood east of Downtown Detroit. The area is part of the Mies van der Rohe Residential District listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Lafayette Park is a high rise residential neighborhood east of Downtown Detroit. The Pavilion Apartments were glazed with huge windows approximately 9' wide giving great panoramic vistas.

Lafayette Park is a high rise residential neighborhood east of Downtown Detroit. The Pavilion Apartments were glazed with huge windows approximately 9' wide giving great panoramic vistas.

Lafayette Park is a high rise residential neighborhood east of Downtown Detroit.

The Dymaxion House was developed by inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller, who used a portmanteau of the words dynamic, maximum, and tension to arrive at the term Dymaxion.

The mobile workshop visited Dymaxion house, developed by inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller as an alternative to the house fabrication techniques of the time.

The Dymaxion House was developed by inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller, who used a portmanteau of the words dynamic, maximum, and tension to arrive at the term Dymaxion.

Cranbrook Academy of the Arts Dining Hall. Cranbrook Academy of Art, known as the cradle of American modernism, continues to have a significant impact on the world of art, architecture, and design completely disproportionate to its size.

Cranbrook Academy of the Arts Dining Hall. Cranbrook Academy of Art, known as the cradle of American modernism, continues to have a significant impact on the world of art, architecture, and design completely disproportionate to its size.

Cranbrook Academy of Art, known as the cradle of American modernism, continues to have a significant impact on the world of art, architecture, and design completely disproportionate to its size.

Cranbrook Academy of Art, known as the cradle of American modernism, continues to have a significant impact on the world of art, architecture, and design completely disproportionate to its size.

Cranbrook Academy of Art, known as the cradle of American modernism, continues to have a significant impact on the world of art, architecture, and design completely disproportionate to its size.

The metropolitan scale mobile workshop at the LafargeHolcim Forum 2016 focuses on the adaptation, reuse and repositioning of large-scale buildings, parcels and city districts through three sections: A Corktown industrial building, the riverfront and an array of neighbourhood projects on the East Side.

Ponyride is a study to see how the foreclosure crisis can have a positive impact on Detroit's communities. The Detroit Denom Co is one of the tenants in Ponyride.

Ponyride is a study to see how the foreclosure crisis can have a positive impact on Detroit's communities. The Detroit Denom Co is one of the tenants in Ponyride.

Where downtown Detroit meets the riverfront, the city's civic center has seen considerable transformation since the middle of the 20th century.

In a mobile workshop examining adaptation and reuse: a story in three parts, the metropolitan scale workshop focused on the adaptation, reuse, and repositioning of large-scale buildings, parcels, and city districts of Detroit.

In a mobile workshop examining adaptation and reuse: a story in three parts, the metropolitan scale workshop focused on the adaptation, reuse, and repositioning of large-scale buildings, parcels, and city districts of Detroit.

In a mobile workshop examining adaptation and reuse: a story in three parts, the metropolitan scale workshop focused on the adaptation, reuse, and repositioning of large-scale buildings, parcels, and city districts of Detroit.

In a mobile workshop examining adaptation and reuse: a story in three parts, the metropolitan scale workshop focused on the adaptation, reuse, and repositioning of large-scale buildings, parcels, and city districts of Detroit.

In a mobile workshop examining adaptation and reuse: a story in three parts, the metropolitan scale workshop focused on the adaptation, reuse, and repositioning of large-scale buildings, parcels, and city districts of Detroit.

In a mobile workshop examining adaptation and reuse: a story in three parts, the metropolitan scale workshop focused on the adaptation, reuse, and repositioning of large-scale buildings, parcels, and city districts of Detroit.

In a mobile workshop examining adaptation and reuse: a story in three parts, the metropolitan scale workshop focused on the adaptation, reuse, and repositioning of large-scale buildings, parcels, and city districts of Detroit.

In a mobile workshop examining adaptation and reuse: a story in three parts, the metropolitan scale workshop focused on the adaptation, reuse, and repositioning of large-scale buildings, parcels, and city districts of Detroit.

The territorial scale mobile workshop at the LafargeHolcim Forum 2016 explores infrastructure’s capacity for community-building through the Beltline project, a collection of businesses – from a boxing gym to a salvage warehouse – working together to upgrade their common infrastructure.

Mobile workshop expert Diane Van Buren integrates urban redevelopment with historic preservation and sustainable development principles to maximize community resources for sustained economic development. Pictured at Mt Elliott Park before the start of a walking tour of the Beltline, examining projects that both heal the landscape and provide solutions to citywide challenges of aging infrastructure and shrinking municipal budgets.

The territorial scale mobile workshop explored infrastructure’s capacity for community-building through the Beltline project, a collection of businesses working together to upgrade their common infrastructure.

Mobile workshop expert Dan Pitera (with microphone) views the design profession as an essential force in establishing human relationships and engagement, at Mt Elliott Park, the third plaza and pavilion to be developed by the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy along the east riverfront’s more than three miles of completed pathways, parks and green space that are all connected by the vibrant RiverWalk.

Earthworks Urban Farm (www.cskdetroit.org/earthworks) is a 2.5 acre certified organic farm located in the City of Detroit. As a working study in both social justice and in knowing the origins of the food we eat, Earthworks strives to restore our connection to the environment and community.

The Earthworks Urban Farm, a 2.5 acre certified organic farm, was part of the mobile workshop exploring infrastructure’s capacity for community-building.

The territorial scale mobile workshop explored infrastructure’s capacity for community-building through the Beltline project, a collection of businesses working together to upgrade their common infrastructure.

The territorial scale mobile workshop explored infrastructure’s capacity for community-building through the Beltline project, a collection of businesses working together to upgrade their common infrastructure.

Gleaners Food Bank (www.gcfb.org) operates five distribution centers including Beaufait Street, and provides food to 535 partner soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters and other agencies throughout southeastern Michigan. Gleaners collects 34.5 million pounds of food a year and distributes 79,000 meals each day including providing nourishing food and nutrition education to 84,700 children a year.

Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program (www.downtownyouthboxing.org) develops good citizenship in urban youth through strong academic support, a demanding boxing program, and a connection to the community through voluntary service.

Avalon Bake House (www.avalonbreads.net) established under the philosophy of Zen business requires socially-responsible operation in terms of environmental impact and employee relations. The business owners wanted to create an urban renaissance and set an example for sustainable, Earth-friendly businesses.

The territorial scale mobile workshop explored infrastructure’s capacity for community-building through the Beltline project, a collection of businesses working together to upgrade their common infrastructure.

Avalon Bake House (www.avalonbreads.net) established under the philosophy of Zen business requires socially-responsible operation in terms of environmental impact and employee relations. The business owners wanted to create an urban renaissance and set an example for sustainable, Earth-friendly businesses.

The territorial scale mobile workshop explored infrastructure’s capacity for community-building through the Beltline project, a collection of businesses working together to upgrade their common infrastructure.

The territorial scale mobile workshop explored infrastructure’s capacity for community-building through the Beltline project, a collection of businesses working together to upgrade their common infrastructure.

Ben Wolf (www.ben-wolf.com) moved to Detroit after growing up in Nashville and working as an artist in New York City. The shared artistic maker space allows him the room he needs for large installation art. His sculptural practice is most often installation driven: to create for a specific space gives life to material and shape, color and space.

Ben Wolf (www.ben-wolf.com) moved to Detroit after growing up in Nashville and working as an artist in New York City. The shared artistic maker space allows him the room he needs for large installation art. His sculptural practice is most often installation driven: to create for a specific space gives life to material and shape, color and space.

Sharing the artistic maker space (left of image) Mitch Cope (www.visitdesign99.com) and Scott Hocking (www.scotthocking.com) provided an insight into the Detroit arts community. Now embedded in their residential corner of Detroit, Design 99 seeks out opportunities to experiment with art and design within their community. Scott Hocking focuses on the interplay between man and nature within the city of Detroit and hope to reveal not only the underlying beauty of the city’s own metamorphoses, but the ongoing nature of life itself.

The Packard Motor Co. plant at the north end of the Beltline was the first large-scale automobile plant in Detroit and gave rise to the career of architect Albert Kahn: with the first use of large-scale reinforced-concrete construction that allowed an interior clearance of 32x60 feet. The factory complex closed in 1958 but was occupied by other businesses until the early 2000s when it was completely abandoned.

The territorial workshop viewed sites in a walking tour stretching from the Iron Belle Trail to the abandoned Packard automotive plant.

Approaching carbon neutral: the walking tour featured a solar-powered public address system, which doubled to provide recharging for cell phones during the program.

The planetary scale mobile workshop at the LafargeHolcim Forum 2016 focuses on the history of the automotive industry and, in doing so, the infrastructural and urban history of the city. Key Ford Motor Company sites in and around Detroit examined the present to the origins of mass production.

The planetary scale Mobile Workshop focused on the history of the automotive industry and, in doing so, on the infrastructural and urban history of the city.

The once glorious and now decrepit Michigan Building currently stands a shadow of its former self - it was built as a 4,000-capacity movie theater but is now used as a car park and includes office and retail space. The theater, with its French Renaissance-style decor, was developed on the site of Henry Ford's first automobile workshop in 1925.

Visiting the Ford Motor Company site during the Mobile Workshop examining the urban pattern of the automotive industry.

The Ford Plant on Piquette Avenue was the second home of the Ford Motor Company and was in operation from 1904 through 1910.

There were 12,000 Model T’s manufactured at this location until Ford moved production to the much larger Highland Park Ford Plant in Detroit.

Today, you can visit the birthplace of the Model T. The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is again open and evolving into a symbol of Detroit’s ability to invent, innovate, and rebound.

The 1858 intersection of two railroad lines—Detroit & Milwaukee, and Chicago, and Detroit & Canada Grand Trunk Junction—had created a natural location for Detroit manufacturing, with easy access to national distribution by rail. Called Milwaukee Junction, it became the hub of Detroit’s emerging auto industry in the early 1900s. It was a natural choice for Ford Motor Company’s new plant in 1904.