June 25–28, 2026
150 Art Building & Old Main
Detroit, Michigan 48202
United States
Open call for Detroit Architecture Summer Institute 2026 at Wayne State University. Detroit Architecture Summer Institute (DASI) critically engages Detroit’s automotive, labor, and creative infrastructures through interdisciplinary architecture and spatial frameworks.
2026 TOPIC
Place-Based Storytelling & Independent Research Around Detroit’s Automotive, Labor, and Creative Infrastructures, Histories, and Sites
DASI 2026
For our inaugural session, we will host an intensive four-day workshop for students, researchers, and practitioners at Wayne State University and across Detroit.
The cohort will critically and creatively engage Detroit sites and landmarks, including the Walter P. Reuther Library Archives on Wayne State University’s campus. We will wander and study sites together, independently, and in smaller groups based on individual interests.
We will produce a collective document archiving our studies and time together. Participants will have opportunities to advance their own research and creative practices through workshops with cartoonist Lauren Weinstein, DASI 2026 Artist-in-Residence, and archivists at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs.
DASI supports longer stays by those who wish to research or do creative work after the intensive workshop.
Background
Detroit is future-oriented. Detroit asks us to design expansively and collectively, to reimagine our goals for the built environment.
Detroit residents, scholars, and workers have long addressed, on behalf of an entire nation, questions about resiliency, ingenuity, automation, being human, creative expression, social mobility, mutuality, and post-industrial realities.
DASI works to advance not only architectural and interdisciplinary spatial thinking, but also mutuality and care in architecture and built environment practices. We are dedicated to transforming the ways we practice in community with others to further holistic, participatory, open, and mutual infrastructures for architectural and interdisciplinary spatial thinking and practice in Detroit and beyond.
Program details
Application opens: Review begins May 10, 2026 / accepted until cohort full. Dates: June 25–28, 2026. Location: Department of Art, Art, History, and Design, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202. Format: Discussions, site visits, workshops, and archival work. Cost: 1,250 USD / Scholarships available. Cohort: Small cohort of students, researchers, and practitioners.
What DASI provides
–Four days of creative and collaborative exchange to advance collective and individual research and creative work
–Engagement with notable sites across metro Detroit
–Documentation workshop with archivists at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs
–Place-based storytelling workshop with artist-in-residence Lauren Weinstein
–Access to the Detroit Institute of Arts during stay
–All-day trip to Ford sites: The Henry Ford Museum, Ford Rouge Factory, and Greenfield Village
–Access to a shared workspace and computer lab at Wayne State University during and shortly after the session
–Dinners
Application process
Send your materials as a PDF document to the DASI 2026 organizer at gm4897@wayne.edu . The review process begins May 10, 2026 and is open until the cohort is full. To be considered, please submit:
–A short letter expressing your interest in DASI, place-based research, and being in Detroit; your current practice or recent work; and how your work will be advanced by this experience
–CV, up to two pages
–Optional portfolio showing up to five projects
Team
Laura Foxman (DASI 2026 Organizer / Assistant Professor of Design at Wayne State University) is a Detroit-based interdisciplinary architect/artist and educator whose practice centers on civic and cultural infrastructures that advance public life. She leads the research-based practice We Are All Collage (WAAC), which operates at the intersection of architecture, design, and information culture.
Lauren R. Weinstein (DASI 2026 Artist-in-Residence / Cartoonist and Artist) is a cartoonist, animator, and visual artist whose work addresses adolescence, motherhood, and mortality. Her books include Girl Stories, Inside Vineyland, and Goddess of War, and her comics have been published in The New Yorker, Slate, The Paris Review, Bookforum, and The Guardian.
Contact
For questions, inquiries, and expressions of interest: gm4897@wayne.edu.
