Ishtiaq Jabir Rafiuddin’s route to Detroit has been roundabout, to say the least. Born in Bangladesh and raised in New York, he spent five years living in Istanbul—first working for REX, overseeing the construction of the Vakko Fashion Center, and then running a firm that produced renderings for architects. He returned to New York and, after stints at OMA and REX (again), he and a colleague from REX, Tomas Janka, started a small firm in 2015 that designed a helipad in Mexico City and high-end apartments in New York. While he was grateful for the experience, Rafiuddin, now 41, was uneasy at the prospect of devoting his career to serving the top 1 percent. He wanted to do projects aimed at “the fat part of the demographic bell curve,” he says. So when an entrepreneur friend, Philip Kafka, showed him plans to convert an old garage in Detroit into a restaurant, he offered advice and then designed the project, Takoi, in collaboration with Kafka and, for the interior, with Janka.