MAde Studio is not your ordinary architecture practice, if there even is such a thing. Founded by a Spain-born urbanist and a former biologist, the Michigan-based interdisciplinary studio has made waves recently by adding a layer of water to the way planners and politicians have been attempting to solve the crises of post-industrial Rust Belt cities like Detroit. Principals María Arquero de Alarcón and Jen Maigret met in 2009 at the University of Michigan’sTaubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, both arriving in time for the fall semester. MAde Studio was born less than twelve months later.
The studio’s calling card is the rich use of data to foster imagination about public space in communities plagued by blight and disinvestment, an ambition present in projects like Playful Horizons and Liquid Planning Detroit. When we asked Jen and María to help guide our Ideas Issue, they turned us onto Liz Ogbu, selected our Editor’s Picks, and gamely participated in a wild search for the “next big idea in urban design”. In our conversation, we discuss everything from memory to imagination to “checklist” sustainability.