3G2 - ARCH 412 - FALL 2025
STUDENT
Surya Cannon
PROFESSORS
Adam Fure, Tess Clancy
This project imagines a childcare-centric intentional community in Detroit's Little Village neighborhood following John Dewey's philosophy of democratic education. Family members (including children) vote annually for preferred units, rotating between living spaces as their needs change over time.
The site is arranged into age-based courtyards. Birth-oriented buildings are made publicly accessible on a commercial street, while teens are tucked into the neighborhood. Wedge- shaped exterior voids inform the interior, creating unique but spatially equal residential units. Spaces are separate yet shared, using views, gaps, and overlaps to facilitate parenting and learning, independence and safety.
One highlighted building houses a communal kitchen, the other allows teens and parents to live semi-independently.