Escuela sin Fronteras, School without Borders

Abstract

What is the significance of a border? The lines that separate us are also a part of the framework that define who we are, how we build and where. A border can be as small in scale as a doorway, passing a person from one space into another, to the magnitude of an international boundary, a geopolitical line that determines culture, language, rights, and wealth. These boundaries with such a vast socioeconomic impact, have no predetermined physical manifestation. This begs the question, what could a border be? Or maybe more importantly, what should it be?

This project explores these questions by investigating the border between the United States and Mexico. This 1,954 mile border, comprised of land and a river, is one of the more contested, violent, and emotional places of transition in the world. Already a heavily structured line, the border that separates the United States from Mexico has become a visible line, dividing the first world from the third world. This project argues that this border is not just a problem of international politics, but an architectural one. If we are to build our borders, they should be built as places of shared infrastructure, an economic investment in creating a zone of shared culture and learning that can still be simultaneously a place of security.

Escuela sin fronteras, School without Borders, is a project that challenges the preconception of border, and introduces the possibility that a border is the first line in a larger framework that can define how we choose to live beside each other.