The Wheel Project

ADAPTIVE REUSE: BIKE PARK AND WELLNESS CENTER | DETROIT, MI

Yale School Of Architecture | Spring 2021 | 12 Weeks

Instructor: Marlon Blackwell, Marlon Blackwell Architects

Individual Work

Detroit is a universal signifier of economic and spatial shrinkage—having lost two-thirds of its population and its manufacturing economy—where demolition unfortunately substitutes for urban policy and planning. Our client in Detroit wants to repurpose a former engine testing complex designed by the celebrated American architect, Albert Kahn, a 20th century pioneer in the design of industrial manufacturing facilities. The primary building in the complex is a concrete bunker designed for the testing of engines, entailing their explosion—an energy which the structure, in turn, had to absorb. The now-vacated Continental Motors facility in east Detroit is a stunning and other-worldly architectural relic, but its eccentricity does not suggest a ready and natural reuse.

Detroit is famous for motor transportation. In fact, based on an analysis of existing forms of transportation across scales reveals a network of bikes, skateboards, and other wheel activities. However, these communities and organizations often lack a form of agency and infrastructure to support their communal activities. This intervention expands and interweaves the public path into the open ground for these underserved communities. Through the introduction of the new public playground (bike paths), the project frames a new expanded field that promotes a playful interface from the city to the community. The current existing building intervention frames a thickened peripheral of the public playground and offers places for solitude and slow leisure activities, such as swimming, yoga, and bathing. Those activities happen on the periphery, turning the edge into a place, a wellness center that offers retail, catering, classrooms, and other facilities to promote interweaved places for sport, cultural and social activities. It also frames different views of the playground for visual interactions. All in all, this project intends to create a wellness center for the underprivileged community by interweaving different leisure activities on site. As such, the projects create continuity in one occupant’s chosen activity path as well as an economic diversity for the neighborhood. 

The main program is a to create a wellness center to house different public recreational activities with the emphasizes on a bike system. Communal, service, and commercial elements will come in as supplements for the community. As such, the space accommodates different leisure programs that are at different velocity on the spectrum, creating different forms of interactions from fast activities to slow activities. Since the original site is left with the concrete slab from previous building. The design takes advantage of the exciting concrete slab and utilize some of the materials to form the bike path. The bike path goes through the site and connect a series of recreational and wellness activities. The different programs in the existing building are being framed in the plaza and provide the occupants with a maximum freedom of movement and social diversity. The intervention in the existing buildings offer places for solitude and slow leisure activities, such as swimming, yoga, and spa.

STREET FRONT BIKE SERVICE + COFFEESHOP

The service and coffee shop is located at the west entry of the site, it adopts a warmer tone that differs from the existing concrete building. It provides basic bike services and food service for pass by passengers and clients from the Chrysler group. The spa center consists of a pool and individual spa rooms. Located on the second floor of the west engine test building. The individual spa rooms utilize the original light shafts to create enclosed and more private space while the pool adopts a high ceiling for more passive light and publicity. The spa center frames a thickened volume and offers places for solitude and slow leisure activities. The yoga room is located in the power plant. It is an insertion of the volume inside the existing building. The design is more enclosed within the open envelope which allows the visitors to feel more protected and connected. It also overlooks the bike path while the two parallel paths for pedestrians and bike riders pass through the existing power plant. The bike path then expands into a velodrome at the south east side of the site which is shown in the section. The velodrome utilizes a more open structure with a covered roof, it not only creates room for bike events, but also provides space for more communal or sports activities. The idea is to have a minimum intervention on the east part of the engine test building and offers classrooms and flex spaces for the community. The exterior wall is opened up to allow for more passive light. Center atrium space services as a gathering space and exhibitions room, which also frames a direct views to the playground and the velodrome for visual interactions. All in all, through the introduction of a bike network, the project creates a new expanded public field that supports the underprivileged community with a wellness center and provide a playful interface from the city to the community