5th Year design 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
Unfolded section through 1.5-mile-long facility showing the various stages of tyre recycling
Diagram showing ecology of car components and materials along a ten-mile stretch of the Rouge River
Rouge River Recycling Masterplan
Rouge River Masterplan Concept Model – Plywood / Walnut, 1:7,500
Tyre Recycling Facility Site Plan, 1:1,000
Tyre Recycling Facility Roof Plan, 1:1,000
Undulating Roofscape – exploded isometric drawing
Tyre removal, tyre cathedral and whole tyre storage – exploded isometric view
Rotunda of Tyre Cathedral – reflected ceiling plan
Rotunda of Tyre Cathedral – reflected ceiling plan
Material storage racks – concept collage
Tyre pulverisation – concept collage
Tyre storage facility
Elevation of public collonade adjacent to tyre recycling facility
Section through public collonade overlooking tyre pulverisation
Channelised River Rouge landscape intervention
Tectonic build-up of vaulted roof construction
Landscape interpretation viewing tower – a place to appreciate the new River Rouge – clad in used car components such as doors
Detroit’s land use cycles, 1785-2013
Annexation of land in Detroit – the case for a unified city
Rouge River as the site of a re-assembly line
Car dismantling process – analytical diagram
Car dismantling process analytical diagram – detail
Design for an adjustable car cradle system to run along Rouge River
Adjustable car cradle system – rapid prototype test model, 1:31
A new Rouge River – concept collage
River crossing – concept image
River crossing – concept model, 1:100
Rubber recycling park – concept model, rubber sheet / brass 1:100
A new Rouge River Ecology – concept diagram
Rouge River Masterplan – the three key elements
Tyre processing – programmatic arrangement
Tyre recycling facility – programmatic requirements
Ford’s River Rouge plant – scale analysis
Automobile componentry – the 15,000 elements of a modern-day car
Detroit as a new recycling Mecca – facts and figures
Vaulted roof forms – digital material simulations
Vaulted roof forms – digital material simulations
Vaulted roof forms – digital material simulations
Vaulted roof forms – rapid prototyped development models
Resurrecting the Rouge by Richard Winter is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
