Urban Social-Ecosystems: Architectural Strategies for Excess Spaces, conducted during the Wallenberg thesis studio at the University of Michigan, proposes that cities should be viewed holistically as the complex systems of spatial and interpersonal relationships they are, rather than merely a collection of people or economic phenomenon. Across the United States, many of our cities are built to expect and rely on unrealistic exponential growth (population, economic, etc) to succeed, leading to a decay of the built environment when this is not received. While perpetuating a growth mindset is unsustainable, neither is embracing one of total degrowth: these are real places where real people live, and these matured urban spaces should not be neglected. The project aims to reject the binary notion of growth versus decline, and instead advocates a middle road for these communities in transition that allows for stability and health of the built environment regardless of which uncertain future (growth or degrowth) may occur.

The project attempts this through three unfolding operations of excess spaces within a residential neighborhood, enabled through a larger sitewide move performed on a block in Huntington, West Virginia. The rejection of abstract parcel lines by the removal of fences allows for an escape from the original regimented organization of the neighborhood block, and allows vacant homes and lots, which otherwise would have been left neglected, to become beneficial to residents of the block. While their programs could be any public amenity that fulfills a need and encourages community to coalesce around them, the three spatial operations (performance house, deli garage, and laundry house) embrace a new omnidirectionality through their iterative addition to existing structures. Allowing these spaces to serve a new purpose in the immediate term, and preventing the loss of material and urban fabric which comes with current processes of demolition and deconstruction, aims to foster resilience and vibrancy in uncertain communities such as Huntington.