Un-Wall the Border / Deconstruir la frontera

The book is part of the Entorno Social y Medio Ambiente series of the Fondo Editorial Nuevo León. The entire debate about the construction of the wall between Mexico, south, and the United States, north, has generated numerous narratives interpreted by artists, architects and planners. The topic of the wall has been mostly used as a pretext for the enunciation of self-referential formulations. Does the wall offer any real opportunity to contribute through design to the improvement of living conditions for those whose lives, for different reasons, happen to be suspended, stalled, or fractured in between the two sides of the border? In order to challenge conventional conceptions and offer alternative approaches, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and the Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) organized a joint design workshop directed by Pasini and Better to conduct a research of concepts, analyze specific sites along the border and submit proposals. This book presents process and results. The workshop promoted a reconsideration of the conventional conception of the border as a dividing line of no thickness and tried to recover an inhabitable space in between the two sides. By expanding the single dimension of the dividing line, where only operations such as “separating”, “crossing”, and “moving along” apply, a tridimensional space appears, allowing for the performing of social activities. Elaborating on various sites along the border, the work elaborated on a possible Non-Crossing Zone as a place where people from both sides go to stay (as opposed to crossing), socialize, create and produce beyond barriers. The book presents the three major phases of the work: Research, Territorial and Urban Concepts, and Architectural Project. The first addresses a thematic research and a practical analysis of design sites, the second prefigures an urban or territorial scenario, the third leads to a physically defined spatial proposal. Issues of identity, culture, agriculture, and manufacturing are addressed while the analysis and design work aims at alternative conceptualizations of spatial border conditions, territories of social exchange, and structures for production, fair trade, and equal opportunities.