Resurrecting the Rouge

5th year masters project, Unit 16, the Bartlett. As the birthplace of mass production and Henry Ford’s assembly line, Detroit’s fortunes were built on a booming car industry. Working with the city’s automotive heritage, the proposal sees Detroit as a place for cars to be reborn and recycled. A reverse assembly line is staged along the Rouge River, creating value-added products from end-of-life vehicles. After being loaded into cradles, cars are moved along tracks and are dismantled stage by stage at different processing facilities. Recovered materials are then fed into Ford’s existing manufacturing facilities at its River Rouge complex, creating an ecology for both the production and repurposing of around one million cars per year. A new public landscape is created along the Rouge River, celebrating the recycled materials in a series of distinct destination parks. This aims to create a positive relationship between spaces for leisure and industry, whilst allowing the public to understand and experience the city’s new recycling technologies. The scheme is architecturally represented through a tyre recycling facility, enabling millions of car tyres to be processed into new products, from retreaded tyres to crumb rubber concrete. Architecturally, the processes of the factory are enclosed beneath an undulating roof and partially submerged. Formed from prestressed, thin-shelled vaults, the roofscape uses pulverised tyres as aggregate to create a dark, grainy concrete. Referencing Dieste’s industrial buildings, the lightweight architecture aims to create an efficient yet dramatic setting for Detroit’s new car industry.

Rouge River Revitalised - the proposed riverside walk and park allows for public engagement and interaction with the city’s new automobile recycling industry. This new public space creates added value for Detroit from previously undervalued car tyres.

The Tyre Cathedral - elevating the process of tyre sorting to an almost religious experience

Public walkway above short-term tyre storage. After being sorted in the tyre cathedral, automated cranes arrange tyres systematically into bays according to size and condition, before further processing such as pulverising, retreading and pyrolysis