The Inner Landscape of Detroit

The Inner Landscape of Detroit is an interactive workshop exploring how memory and storytelling can become design tools. Through guided mapping exercises, participants will create a collective Emotional Atlas of Detroit and discover how lived experience can inform more inclusive, resilient, and human-centered neighborhood design.

The Inner Landscape of Detroit invites participants to explore a simple but powerful question: What if our memories could help shape the future of our neighborhoods?

The session begins with a short talk introducing the concept of emotional infrastructure, the invisible layer of memory, story, sensory experience, and everyday rituals that gives places meaning. Participants will discover how these often-overlooked qualities influence belonging, neighborhood identity, and community resilience.

Participants will then take part in a guided mapping workshop, reflecting on a Detroit neighborhood they know. Through a series of prompts, they will identify the places, sounds, landmarks, routines, and experiences that have shaped their connection…