Teddy Cruz & Trans-Border Urbanism

Don't miss Teddy Cruz, who we wrote about back in March, talking about his observations on trans-border urbanism on Architecture Radio.

"Inspired by his studio's location at the border between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico, Cruz's work explores the uniqueness of this bicultural territory. Cruz's work integrates research, theory, and design production to create architecture, interiors, furniture, installations, public art, and landscape interventions. Over the past decade, Cruz has demonstrated a commitment to finding architectural and urban planning solutions for global political and social problems that proliferate in international border zones. Taking his theoretical frame of reference as a starting point, Cruz has pursued investigations that stimulate an unconventional practice addressing the future of "divided" cities and the larger phenomenon of border zones." [Architecture Radio]

Teddy talks about the issues of trans-border urbanism with clarity, insight, and humor. This lecture is a great primer for anyone interested in the subject.

More Information:
Teddy Cruz on Architecture Radio
Border Postcard: Chronicles from the Edge by Teddy Cruz
Cruz Finding New Solutions for Border Living, Architectural Record
Urban Acupuncture, Residential Architect

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Growing Security, or... Park as Wall

I'm a little late to this one, but it's too interesting to not post:

Mexico to grow 'green wall' along U.S. border - MSNBC

"MEXICO CITY - Mexico is creating an environmental reserve about 30 feet wide and 600 miles long on the Texas border, a “green wall” to protect the Rio Grande from the roads and staging areas that smugglers use to ferry drugs and migrants across the frontier.

Much of this border zone is remote and inhospitable — generally too rough to hike through unless you’re a black bear or a pronghorn sheep, species that have flourished in the area’s deserts and mountains..."



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Friday Photography | Border Film Project

Friday Photography this week is special. Three friends "spent three months on the U.S. Mexico border filming and distributing hundreds of disposable cameras to two groups on different sides of the line: undocumented migrants crossing the desert and Minutemen volunteers trying to stop them."

They've received 1,500 pictures to date and more are coming every day. The photos show a human element that isn’t there when you watch the news or read the paper. They are a first person account of the inhumanity that borders, walls, fences - whether built or psychological - can invoke.

Go to: Border Film Project

The photos they’ve received from the migrants and the minutemen document both differences and, like the photos above, similarities.

“The similiarities resonate with a deep lesson of the project. We have realized that although the Minutemen and humanitarian organizations on the border have very different motivations, both, paradoxically, have much in common. Both groups believe that U.S. border policy has failed by allowing hundreds of thousands of migrants to cross the desert each year, and both have taken it upon themselves as U.S. citizens to rectify the situation."