ABSTRACT
Karen Swanson describes growing up in the suburbs north of Detroit, becoming an architect, and working in architecture firms in Chicago and Denver before moving back to Michigan and teaching at the University of Detroit Mercy. Using terrain vague and temporary use theories, the chapter discusses how the architect made it her mission to spend no money on a project other than on student labor for a fundraising event where each designer was to design and construct a space for dining by teaming up with a product manufacturer. She also describes how one of her thesis students stumbled upon the concealed life happening on what was once the grounds of the Uniroyal Tire and Detroit Stove works manufacturing plants. Ignoring the warning signs and fence around the property, he creatively extracted the hidden potential of unconventional found resources. The chapter concludes with the story of a graduate student who had watched the decline of the neighborhood where she still lived and used her thesis to create a community organization that is still ongoing and continues to make a difference in the life of her community.
