Organized as part of a five-year collaboration between the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department and Taubman College, University of Michigan, Re: Housing: Detroit is a Detroit- and Ann Arbor-based symposium in fall 2019 bringing together architects, city planners, developers, academics, and housing advocates working on inclusive, innovative, and affordable medium-density-housing. The two-day symposium will correspond with the second iteration of the biennial exhibition Detroit Design 139, focusing on current and planned building in Detroit designed by local, national, and international architects including work of master’s of architecture students at Taubman College and the annual Detroit Month of Design. The studio leverages the research capacities of the architecture program to inform the real-time design of sustainable neighborhood and housing development in Detroit. The symposium will include keynotes in Detroit and at the University, tours, and panel discussions.

Sharon Haar is a professor of architecture at Taubman College, University of Michigan. Her current research investigates the role of entrepreneurship, design innovation, and global networking in the transformation of architectural practices devoted to social activism and humanitarian relief. Haar’s publications include: The City as Campus: Urbanism and Higher Education in Chicago (University of Minnesota Press, 2011) and Schools for Cities: Urban Strategies (Princeton Architectural Press, 2003). Her articles and book reviews appear in journals including the Journal of Architectural Education, the Journal of Planning Education and Research, the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Architect’s Newspaper, and Architectural Design. Her recent book chapters appear in: The Urban Ecologies Reader, Embodied Utopias, Shanghai Transforming, and On Location: Heritage Cities and Sites. She is the recipient of numerous grants from institutions including the Graham Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Fannie Mae Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and American Architecture Foundation.

Maurice Cox is Commissioner of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago. He is an urban designer, architectural educator and former director of the Detroit Planning and Development Department in addition to former mayor of Charlottesville, VA. Cox has taught at Syracuse University, the University of Virginia, Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and Tulane University. He served as design director of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) from 2007–10 where he led the NEA’s Your Town Rural Institute, the Governor’s Institute on Community Design, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, and oversaw direct design grants to the design community across the US. Cox’s experience merging architecture, politics, and design education led to his being named one of “20 Masters of Design” in 2004 by Fast Company Business Magazine. In 2013, Cox was named one of the Most Admired Design Educators in America in the annual ranking of Design Intelligence.

Lars Gräbner is assistant professor of practice at Taubman College, University of Michigan, where he leads the Systems Studio. He is principal and founder of VolumeOne Design Studio in Detroit. He has worked at Studio Daniel Libeskind in Berlin. VolumeOne is an award winning and internationally recognized design firm with projects in the United States, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and China. As lead designer in the company Gräbner focuses on design methodologies, urban design strategies, sustainable building practices, and advanced construction methods. He has taught at the ETH Zürich/ Switzerland and the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG)/ Germany.

The mission of the University of Michigan is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving, and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future. The University was founded in 1817.