University Archives

VLab is an innovation hub situated in Detroit, Michigan that is focused on gathering curious minds to design sustainable building solutions for the Great Lakes region and beyond. Our proposal for VLab’s new incubator building in Detroit aims to achieve 4 major success criteria:

1) Connecting each building face to its adjoining asset (Ralph C. Wilson Park and the Detroit Riverfront)

2) Sculpting a new pedestrian pathway through the building

3) Activating social spaces using greenery

4) Expressing our sustainable design responses.

We identified VLab’s main priorities as: encouraging collaboration and camaraderie between tenants, creating a pedestrian-friendly urban zone, and modeling progressive, sustainable design. We sought to achieve these goals by designing flexible first level spaces for collaboration and presentations, prioritizing the best views from the site (Ralph C. Wilson Park and the Detroit River), prioritizing pedestrian safety, and designing a smart building envelope.

Furthermore, in the office spaces, we aimed to create flexible work areas with a variety of movable furniture and varying levels of privacy. We believe that the future of office spaces includes these characteristics.