Michigan Arts & Culture

Think tank approaches Detroit’s isolated neighborhoods with solutions from Morocco

Michigan Public | By Stateside Staff

Published June 13, 2017 at 3:01 PM EDT

Drawing of the Islamic Riad, a shared courtyard that will join repaired homes & businesses.

Stateside's conversation with Carmen Montoya, a professor at Corcoran School of Arts and one of the lead artists on the American Riad.

Take a Detroit problem. In this case, neighborhoods that have suffered neglect.

Tackle that problem with a solution from a Third World Country, in this case, Morocco.

That's what an innovative effort called the Ghana Think Tank has done. The result is being launched today in Detroit's North End Woodward Community.

It's called the American Riad and it's a project that will transform formerly abandoned buildings into eight homes facing a shared courtyard with a single entrance.

Today marks the first phase of this three-year community regeneration project.

Carmern Montoya, a professor at the Corcoran School of Arts in Washington and one of the lead artists on the American Riad, joined Stateside today to talk about the project.

Listen above.

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