Archive Project

NEXT:SPACE founder, Isabelle Weiss, behind the scenes of Archive Project Volume 1 with Turbulence Vessel by Cody Norman.
Photograph by Charles William Kelly.

Archive Project is a documentary series from NEXT:SPACE exploring the studios and objects of independent designers connected to Detroit. The multimedia project offers a deeper look into the processes and perspectives that shape each object and what value we can find in handcrafted, collectible design.

With each designer, we discover different curiosities, different motivations and, certainly, different ways of making. Yet, despite these differences, we find that ‘something greater’ within each object – a connection, a feeling, an idea – that helps us think beyond our assumptions and expectations towards a more sustainable and enriching future.

Debuting in Autumn 2021, Volume 1, Objects of re:Socialization, took us into the studios of Cody Norman, Paula Schubatis and Alanis McNier.

Volume 2, will share the story of a very special NEXT:SPACE design commission created by Elizabeth Leah Born and Mario Francois Isenmann of zuckerhosen. Narrating how this commission came to life, this next installment of Archive Project will examine the role of curiosity and conscious story-telling in creating objects that carry on Detroit’s important design legacy.