David De Cespedes

Ampersand Volume Six: Sites of Decline David De Cespedes

Whether at the scale of the home, neighborhood, city, or region, Sites of Decline continue to permeate architectural conversation. We have seen a plethora of images - portraying issues of power, desolation, abandonment, or optimism - collectively directing attention [and often times obsession] to any context which no longer resemble a previous image of itself. As a parallel to the massive amounts of creative energy and thought that have been pointed at the investigation of these sites, it begs the questions. So what? Now what? The collected projects of Ampersand Volume Six thrusts 'decline first-responders' into one another, along with their stories, contexts, and agendas, concurrently reassessing the topic of decline, and detaching common tropes associated with it. Decline's siblings - degradation, disaster, abandonment, and contamination - all make cameos throughout the volume. Ampersand is a student-led publication at University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning.