East Detroit comprises mostly of timber neighbourhoods, whose houses are sitting ducks susceptible to arson attacks. Having visited the Detroit Fire Department, I became curious about these attacks and how the city addresses the issue. The fire department categorises arson under 4 categories; 1. arson for profit 2. arson for revenge 3. pyromaniac arson 4. Juvenile arson. There is even a period called 'Devil's Night' around Halloween where pyromaniacs rampantly burn vacant houses. Since the Detroit fire department has laid off a lot of its fire fighters, the few that remain are overburdened, given that Detroit has one of the highest arson rates in the country. Since they can't see to all the fires, they have adopted a 'let it burn' policy where if the house stands in isolation and is known to be unoccupied, it is left to burn. Often however, there is the danger of a snowball effect where the fire can raze a whole neighbourhood at a time if the houses stand within close proximity to each other, which they often do. The Detroit Fire Department predicts that over the next 100 years, a bounded area in East Detroit, which I have chosen as my site, will be razed by fire over the next 100 years. In my other research, I discovered that the Detroit salt mine lies beneath this area in the East. It has been abandoned for the most part and is currently owned by the 'Detroit Salt Company' who still operate in a very small percentage of the mine. Articles I read dating back to the 40s described it as one of the biggest salt mines in the world, lined with 80 miles of road, with ample artificial lighting. Vehicles have been abandoned in its tunnels. The juxtaposition of the fragile timber neighbourhoods above ground and this robust, indestructible structure that lies below ground is something that resonated in my mind. I thought of staging an intervention over the 100 years, to ensure the preservation of an East Detroit neighbourhood. There is only one neighbourhood which remains intact within my chosen site and I thought that it could be sacrificed, along with its inhabitants and reconstituted in the salt tunnels 400 ft below ground. It could become an inhabitable archive and the existing miners' transport to ground level could still be used, which emerges behind Eastern Market. This is the only old brick building which stands on this site and it could provide the inhabitants with a food supply and life support. Eventually, the inhabitants of the sacrificed neighbourhood will die off, and it will become a time capsule. The idea is to preserve a fragment of East Detroit for the generation to come. In order to fund this act, I thought that the Detroit Salt Company could expand its operations, with a high demand for road salt in the region. In the winter months, the salt is needed to de-ice all the motorways in Michigan, particularly the motorways in Detroit, that were a result of the booming auto industry in the 30s. I am proposing the Detroit Salt Company as the client in this project, to effectuate this act of preservation and sustain its upkeep, regulating visits to the archive.