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Unbuilding Detroit

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

07/06/2011

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Unbuilding Detroit

An exploration of the way abandoned architecture is being re-imagined as art in Detroit.

4 Extra Debut. An exploration of how the architecture of Motown's industrial past in Detroit has been transformed into artworks. From June 2011.

In a city that has shed almost fifty percent of its population since its peak in 1950 - the problem of abandoned houses and crumbling neighbourhoods in Detroit is a significant one. 

As architect Dan Hoffman, remarked, "unbuilding has surpassed building as the city's major architectural activity." Since 1970 almost one-third of the city's occupied houses, more than the total number of occupied dwellings in the entire city of Cincinnati, has been demolished - but many more still remain. 

The city has become a site of artistic pilgrimage for some - often times painted as a ghost town, with images that contain no trace of humanity - just skeletal, abandoned structures reaching up into the sky. But concealed behind the symbolism of this grand, decaying industrial city and its emptiness lies a vibrant network of artists, activists and architects - seeking to beautify, to transform and to re-imagine Detroit.

In this programme we discover how charred, crumbling buildings and dilapidated factories - remnants of Motown's industrial past- have been transformed into riots of colour and sound. Featuring contributions from the artists Scott Hocking, Tyree Guyton and Olayami Dabls.

Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4.

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