Detroit Month of Design talks explore physical and community change in cities
Promotion: the topics of adaptive reuse and civic engagement in cities were among those explored across two key events at this year's Detroit Month of Design festival.
The events included the City of Design Talk panel discussion, moderated by Dezeen, and the all-day Futures in Formation forum hosted by the Michigan Central Art initiative with non-profit organisation Design Core Detroit.
Both events were held on 19 September, midway through Detroit Month of Design 2025, which took place from September 1 to 30.
They were curated in line with the theme of this year's festival, City of Design, which celebrated Detroit's 10th anniversary of becoming a UNESCO City of Design.
In the City of Design Talk, panellists unpacked the role of adaptive reuse in creating thriving and inclusive cities, in line with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The discussion, which was moderated by Dezeen's US editor Ben Dreith, included expert speaker Lauren Hood, founder of Institute for AfroUrbanism (IAU), Melissa Dittmer, head of place at the cultural hub Michigan Central, and Simon David, principal at planning studio Office of Strategy and Design.
A highlight of the conversation was the discourse on the need for more equitable repair and the reframing of language when navigating change in cities, raised by Hood.
"I struggle with words like renewal; all I heard in my household growing up was 'urban renewal means Negro removal'," she said. "I prefer repair. I think there are ways in which you can build, repair, not only into the outcome, a building, a structure, a highway, but into the process."
"It's not just about where you go. It's more about the how and the why. I think that's where the real repair can happen."
The full-day Futures in Formation forum included numerous talks, hosted by Michigan Central Art in collaboration with Design Core Detroit.
It explored the relationship between design and civic engagement through the lenses of migration, cultural exchange and the city of Detroit itself.
Among the talks were a keynote by design theorist Dario Calmese and the Designing Detroit: Collaboration as Civic Infrastructure panel discussion, also moderated by Dezeen's US editor.
The panel discussion included experts Dan Kinkead, engineering firm SmithGroup's director of urban design, Dion Walcott, founder of creative agency MARTKD, and Keiba Jacob Mottley, the chief executive officer of the National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago.
Among the themes of the conversation was how state organisations can manage and balance the preservation of traditions and inevitable change in civic spaces over time.
Mottley drew on the 200-year-old Carnival traditions of Trinidad and Tobago to illustrate the benefits of choosing to "embrace that evolution and that change".
In particular, she highlighted how the country developed its national instrument – steelpans – as a direct result of community adaptation when traditional African drums were banned there throughout the 1880s.
"It would be crazy to think that there will be no change over a lifespan for 200 years," Mottley explained. "What you have to do is understand that with the change, you are changing from something."
"So the preservation of that culture and the telling of those traditional stories have to be incorporated into the new story that you're telling using physical spaces, documenting, which is why you have museums and so on to document where we came from," she added.
This year's Detroit Month of Design marked the 15th edition of the festival, known for its programme of talks, workshops, exhibitions and tours.
Another highlight of this year's edition was the Detroit Warehouse: Art and Design Fair show, where visitors could enjoy demonstrations of a new glass block type and silicone pottery.
To find out more about Detroit Month of Design, visit the festival's website here.
Partnership content
This article was written by Dezeen for Detroit Month of Design as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
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