Youth Hostel Design Build

In the fall of 2010 the Archolab began a series of conversations with the director of Hostel Detroit, a non-profit youth hostel located in the re-emerging Corktown neighborhood in southwest Detroit. Those conversations led to a seminar course during the spring of 2011. The hostel needed an outdoor building to provide secure bicycle and equipment storage, a covered gathering and socializing space and a functional rainwater collection system to support a series of small scale organic gardens. Adjacent to the Hostel’s property are two vacant lots that frequently play host to guests and neighbors. The new building was to make the first gesture in connecting with the adjacent land and activate the Hostel’s unique set of urban spaces.