Design Build Detroit
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In the Detroit neighborhood of Brightmoor, students wake up around 5AM to wait for the bus that takes them to school. Due to a lack of substantial bus shelters, these children are directly exposed to the elements, enduring daily the unforgiving Michigan winds, snows, and rain, all while waiting for their buses alone in the dark.
Over the course of a semester, we, a team of students from the University of Michigan and various locals from Brightmoor to design and build illuminated bus shelters at high traffic bus stops.
Our team discussed problems with the Brightmoor residents, and presented multiple ideas to the community. Once we had settled on an idea, we set out to build our first bus shelter, which took about a month to complete.
Our second bus stop was in a more high traffic area, in front of a parking lot for the local food co-op. By the time we started building this shelter, we had already been through enough trial and error to finish it in half the time as the first.
We were conscious of the abundant salvaged materials around Detroit, so both shelters were primarily made out of garage doors, logs, and urbanite (chunks of sidewalk concrete). Overall, each bus stop cost about $240 to build.
When we were finished, we created a design guide to help the neighborhood association build bus shelters of their own.
