Here’s trouble, and we made it double.

The assignment for this semester we were asked to build a doppelganger volume of one architectural precedent. The scale, nature and characteristics of the precedent was left up to the group. The question each project had to answer was why we were duplicating it, and what will our two of a kind be a new home for?

Kahn-nabis Academy aims to become a multiverse where the opportunity to layer the complexity disparity of the need for affordable childcare and the economic thriving business of cannabis in Michigan to take place. In this way, the duplication of an existing Albert Kahn factory is thought of as a complex ecosystem that makes it possible for children to explore through a process of self-driven collective experimentation while providing a built framework where ethical cultivation and equitable childcare can be juxtaposed. 

Insufficient childcare, especially in Michigan, is a burden to parents who are unable to afford care while also working enough to support a family. By providing in house childcare and education adjacent to the factory, we eliminate a barrier that stands in the face of working class families. Our goal was to humanize a factory setting, while exploring the role between dependence and autonomy between the relationship of the plants & workers and parents and  children.

Albert Kahn’s Half Ton Truck Export Building, located in Detroit Michigan,  became the basis for this exploration. Because of  pre-existing daylighting conditions and aesthetically pleasing proportions, the original provided a space to create a whimsical and multifaceted civic center in the midst of an industrial environment. Considering the increased demand for cannabis cultivation in Michigan, since its recreational legalization in 2018, the duplicate shares similarities to modern day greenhouses and provides an accessible job market in a growing industry.