Maria Arquero d...

María Arquero de Alarcón is currently an Assistant Professor in Architecture and Urban Planning and Design in Taubman College, the University of Michigan. Her research, teaching and practice focus on the design, representation and use of public space both as environmental infrastructure, and as a field of experimentation to devise new forms of civic engagement. Her recent work in the city of Detroit and surrounding region interrogates the agency of the design and planning disciplines in territories under dynamics of urban contraction and sustained population loss. Other current academic collaborations look at the visualization of water dynamics in the Great Lakes region as a vehicle to better inform land use decisions. This line of research articulates the role of visual representation as a mode of inquiry and spatial thinking, a platform to enable design synthesis across geographies, scales and disciplinary cultures.