Culture Lab Detroit, an organization designed to foster conversations and collaborations between Detroit and the international design community announced its fall program around the theme of “Green Space”—a topic mindful to the regeneration of Detroit’s changing urban environment. Fall 2015 programs will include a discussion series, public art projects, and the launch of an exclusive collection of designed products.

A recipient of a national grant from the Knight Foundation, Culture Lab Detroit Dialogue will take place September 10 and 11, 2015. Now in its third year, this year’s program will engage internationally reputed designers, scholars, landscape architects, farmers and chefs to explore the concept of “Green Space.” To many, this topic is of vital importance to the future of cities worldwide, particularly for Detroit, where tens of thousands of lots are vacant across residential and commercial neighborhoods.

“While the experience, interests, and methodologies of our brilliant participants vary, at the core of each dialogue and program we foster through Culture Lab is the belief that art and design can be agents of positive change,” says co=fonder and creative director Jane Schulak. “How we’re thinking about and approaching our green spaces in Detroit, and internationally, is a significant, and necessary piece of this larger conversation.”
Each dialogue is free and open to the public.

Thursday, September 10 – 7 p.m.
Culture Lab Detroit Dialogue: “Greening the City: The Politics and Possibilities of Green Space”. Benson & Edith Ford Conference Center, A. Alfred Taubman Center, College for Creative Studies 460 W. Baltimore St, Detroit, MI 48202

Panelists
Alice Waters, chef, restaurateur, activist, founder of the Edible Schoolyard Project
Patrick Blanc, botanist, ecological engineer, and vertical gardener
Will Allen, pioneer of urban farming movement

Moderator
Stephen Henderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, Detroit Free Press


Friday, September 11 – 6:30 p.m.
Culture Lab Detroit Dialogue: “Architecture and Nature: Designing for Today’s Urban Landscape”. Marvin and Betty Danto Lecture Hall, Detroit Institute of Arts 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48202

Panelists
Sou Fujimoto, Japanese architect, renowned for his synthesis of nature and architecture
Walter Hood, landscape architect, specializing in the public realm and urban environment

Moderator
Reed Kroloff, architect and urban designer, former director of Cranbrook Academy of Art