CLIENT: Detroit Horse Power
LOCATION: Detroit, MI
YEAR: 2021-Ongoing
Detroit Horse Power’s vision is to repurpose a large parcel of vacant land in Detroit to construct a new urban horseback riding center. The facility will be home to year-round youth programs that will bring community-focused development to under served neighborhoods. The focus of this project is to design a traditionally agrarian building in the middle of Detroit. Traditional Barns are vernacular to their rural setting, but we don’t feel this is appropriate for the context of this project.
The design provides a horse-riding facility that accommodates it’s unique, urban setting. The palette utilizes traditional materials in non-traditional ways to address specific considerations like meeting the street with a soft edge so that it is welcoming for students and community members. The design focuses on making a building that is functional for horse riding, while being welcoming and useful for a diverse group of participates from students to community members to event goers.
When fully constructed, the site will include stables for up to 24 horses, indoor and outdoor riding arenas, and paddocks for the horsed to get outside and paddocks for the horses to get outside and graze every day.
