This Abandoned House Is Transforming Into A Model Of Affordable Green Sustainability In The City

On today’s episode, we speak with Casper van Alfen and Joanna van der Leun of the Motown Movement.

That’s the organization founded by architecture students from the Netherlands that bought an abandoned home in Detroit for $1,000 and have been fixing it up with the help of local nonprofits and with the goal of making it into a model of accessible and affordable environmental sustainability.

Van Alfen and Van der Leun are students at Delft University of Technology in Delft, which is about halfway between the Dutch cities of The Hague and Rotterdam.

They talk about how sustainability fits with an impoverished city where many residents worry about more fundamental economic issues of survival, what they’ve learned about Detroit since they’ve been here, and some setbacks they’ve suffered along the way.

And yes, the project has even survived an arson fire. Appropriate for something in Detroit where our motto is, “We hope for better things; it shall arise from the ashes.”

It’s an interesting conversation about an interesting project. If you’d like to learn more about the Motown Movement or support it, visit themotownmovement.com.