Designing vacancy: Vacant land and urban systems in Detroit, MI

Industrial relocation, disinvestment in urban areas and resultant population decreases in post-industrial cities has resulted in the proliferation of urban vacant land. The current discourse on vacant land in cities addresses the phenomenon as a problem. This thesis proposes an alternative position that understands vacant land as one of the many urban systems operating in and contributing to the structure and function of the city. Using Detroit as a case study, the thesis employed a range of qualitative methods to map conditions of vacant land and other urban systems in two Detroit neighborhoods. The thesis proposes a method for site analysis and design based on Carl Steinitz's six-level framework for spatial inquiry (1990). This method ensures a decision-making process that is responsible to and responsive of the community, economy and ecology with which the vacant land system is working. The thesis also evaluates current strategic and tactical approaches to the re-design of urban vacant land and found that a tactical systemic approach significantly impacted the community, economy and ecology of a Detroit neighborhood. If the analysis and design method proposed in this thesis is implemented using systemic tactical approaches, the perception of vacant land as an urban problem has the potential to be altered; vacant land should be understood and used as an urban resource.