This book is an experiment on constructing a text starting — exclusively and strictly — from the materials of an architectural project. As in an archive, it contains all the documents produced by the design team, which become the only sources of a text that allows the reader to generalise the project’s contents and reflect on its process. An extensive masterplan is transforming the abandoned industrial area of Shougang, on the outskirts of Beijing, into one of the venues for the 2022 Winter Olympics Games. Within this process, the China Room, as a research centre of the Politecnico di Torino dedicated to urbanisation and architecture in China, was involved by Tsinghua University in the transformation of the former oxygen factory into a visitor centre, working on industrial memory as a lever for a renovation of the existing aimed at the overall sustainability of the masterplan.The book overviews and analyses the most important steps that transformed initial design intentions into a defined proposal, passing through different solutions, changes, debates, and negotiations among the different stakeholders called into action along the whole process.Telling the story of this architectural project means thinking about the ways of designing across different contexts in the global market. More particularly, the story is about the skills and experiences that Academia puts in place by addressing real transformation projects through research, with respect to professional practice modalities. In addition, the book is intended to make design practicing transparent to the reader, capable to move around the genesis of the project following the many trajectories occurred along the whole process, similarly to an open archive: retrospectively the final image of the building will incorporate architectural elements brought by socio-technical decisions, enlarging the spectrum of design agency from single authorship to a larger collective of involved stakeholders.Among the project documents, a recurring drawing guided the project exchange between the Politecnico and Tsinghua teams during the two years of joint design work. The cross-section of the factory was the point of comparison about the relationship with the structural skeleton of the original factory and the vertical organisation of the project: from the public playground on the ground floor to the intensive exploitation of the intermediate levels, to the roof that seeks new relationships with the competition area and the natural landscape.

This book is an attempt to define some mechanisms of architectural design practice, make them communicable and replicable in the form of a handbook-of-sorts. Within a game of strategy, twelve groups of architects work on adjacent and sometimes overlapping areas in an eastern district of the city of Detroit.The book employs the game and its results to elaborate on some questions: how does architectural design work as day-to-day practice? What are its effects, and how can they be measured? How is practice innovated, i.e. how do architects learn from, or capitalize on, previous effective action?"The Detroit Great Game presents a captivating and timely pedagogical experiment and offers a much-needed rethinking of the playful dimension of architectural education. Federighi and Bruno offer a fresh pragmatist perspective to the reality of project making tracing the contingencies, negotiations, documentary exchange, promises and contextual complexities of architecture in the making. Vividly written and filled with insightful examples and innovative graphics, it is a must-read for every student, academic and practitioner in Architecture." Albena Yaneva, University of Manchester"The Detroit Great Game demonstrates that no architectural project is autonomous from the world and that all projects catapult their players into an unpredictable future. It follows that all projects are susceptible to the vicissitudes of contingent encounters and unexpected roadblocks. Such is the great game of designing worlds on fields of immanence where documents and contracts hold equal weight to material objects. Groping experimentation and experience come first, know-how and knowledge afterwards. Enjoy this great game! Play it seriously!"Hélène Frichot, University of Melbourne

This book is an attempt to define some mechanisms of architectural design practice, make them communicable and replicable in the form of a handbook-of-sorts. Within a game of strategy, twelve groups of architects work on adjacent and sometimes overlapping areas in an eastern district of the city of Detroit.The book employs the game and its results to elaborate on some questions: how does architectural design work as day-to-day practice? What are its effects, and how can they be measured? How is practice innovated, i.e. how do architects learn from, or capitalize on, previous effective action?"The Detroit Great Game presents a captivating and timely pedagogical experiment and offers a much-needed rethinking of the playful dimension of architectural education. Federighi and Bruno offer a fresh pragmatist perspective to the reality of project making tracing the contingencies, negotiations, documentary exchange, promises and contextual complexities of architecture in the making. Vividly written and filled with insightful examples and innovative graphics, it is a must-read for every student, academic and practitioner in Architecture." Albena Yaneva, University of Manchester"The Detroit Great Game demonstrates that no architectural project is autonomous from the world and that all projects catapult their players into an unpredictable future. It follows that all projects are susceptible to the vicissitudes of contingent encounters and unexpected roadblocks. Such is the great game of designing worlds on fields of immanence where documents and contracts hold equal weight to material objects. Groping experimentation and experience come first, know-how and knowledge afterwards. Enjoy this great game! Play it seriously!"Hélène Frichot, University of Melbourne

This book is an experiment on constructing a text starting — exclusively and strictly — from the materials of an architectural project. As in an archive, it contains all the documents produced by the design team, which become the only sources of a text that allows the reader to generalise the project’s contents and reflect on its process. An extensive masterplan is transforming the abandoned industrial area of Shougang, on the outskirts of Beijing, into one of the venues for the 2022 Winter Olympics Games. Within this process, the China Room, as a research centre of the Politecnico di Torino dedicated to urbanisation and architecture in China, was involved by Tsinghua University in the transformation of the former oxygen factory into a visitor centre, working on industrial memory as a lever for a renovation of the existing aimed at the overall sustainability of the masterplan.The book overviews and analyses the most important steps that transformed initial design intentions into a defined proposal, passing through different solutions, changes, debates, and negotiations among the different stakeholders called into action along the whole process.Telling the story of this architectural project means thinking about the ways of designing across different contexts in the global market. More particularly, the story is about the skills and experiences that Academia puts in place by addressing real transformation projects through research, with respect to professional practice modalities. In addition, the book is intended to make design practicing transparent to the reader, capable to move around the genesis of the project following the many trajectories occurred along the whole process, similarly to an open archive: retrospectively the final image of the building will incorporate architectural elements brought by socio-technical decisions, enlarging the spectrum of design agency from single authorship to a larger collective of involved stakeholders.Among the project documents, a recurring drawing guided the project exchange between the Politecnico and Tsinghua teams during the two years of joint design work. The cross-section of the factory was the point of comparison about the relationship with the structural skeleton of the original factory and the vertical organisation of the project: from the public playground on the ground floor to the intensive exploitation of the intermediate levels, to the roof that seeks new relationships with the competition area and the natural landscape.

This book is an attempt to define some mechanisms of architectural design practice, make them communicable and replicable in the form of a handbook-of-sorts. Within a game of strategy, twelve groups of architects work on adjacent and sometimes overlapping areas in an eastern district of the city of Detroit.The book employs the game and its results to elaborate on some questions: how does architectural design work as day-to-day practice? What are its effects, and how can they be measured? How is practice innovated, i.e. how do architects learn from, or capitalize on, previous effective action?"The Detroit Great Game presents a captivating and timely pedagogical experiment and offers a much-needed rethinking of the playful dimension of architectural education. Federighi and Bruno offer a fresh pragmatist perspective to the reality of project making tracing the contingencies, negotiations, documentary exchange, promises and contextual complexities of architecture in the making. Vividly written and filled with insightful examples and innovative graphics, it is a must-read for every student, academic and practitioner in Architecture." Albena Yaneva, University of Manchester"The Detroit Great Game demonstrates that no architectural project is autonomous from the world and that all projects catapult their players into an unpredictable future. It follows that all projects are susceptible to the vicissitudes of contingent encounters and unexpected roadblocks. Such is the great game of designing worlds on fields of immanence where documents and contracts hold equal weight to material objects. Groping experimentation and experience come first, know-how and knowledge afterwards. Enjoy this great game! Play it seriously!"Hélène Frichot, University of Melbourne

This book is an attempt to define some mechanisms of architectural design practice, make them communicable and replicable in the form of a handbook-of-sorts. Within a game of strategy, twelve groups of architects work on adjacent and sometimes overlapping areas in an eastern district of the city of Detroit.The book employs the game and its results to elaborate on some questions: how does architectural design work as day-to-day practice? What are its effects, and how can they be measured? How is practice innovated, i.e. how do architects learn from, or capitalize on, previous effective action?"The Detroit Great Game presents a captivating and timely pedagogical experiment and offers a much-needed rethinking of the playful dimension of architectural education. Federighi and Bruno offer a fresh pragmatist perspective to the reality of project making tracing the contingencies, negotiations, documentary exchange, promises and contextual complexities of architecture in the making. Vividly written and filled with insightful examples and innovative graphics, it is a must-read for every student, academic and practitioner in Architecture." Albena Yaneva, University of Manchester"The Detroit Great Game demonstrates that no architectural project is autonomous from the world and that all projects catapult their players into an unpredictable future. It follows that all projects are susceptible to the vicissitudes of contingent encounters and unexpected roadblocks. Such is the great game of designing worlds on fields of immanence where documents and contracts hold equal weight to material objects. Groping experimentation and experience come first, know-how and knowledge afterwards. Enjoy this great game! Play it seriously!"Hélène Frichot, University of Melbourne