12
Borderland, not a border
Matthew Belaen
Supervisor: Michael Jemtrud
April 01, 2008
Today, the traditional border crossing typology is no longer an appropriate means of delineating boundaries between nation-states. In light of globalization and its influence, numerous other forces play a much greater role in establishing various border conditions then the historic geographical boundaries of the past. Today’s borders are both fluid and overlapping, while simultaneously becoming ever more blurred. It is this new reality that sharply calls into question both the identity, and role of a border at this time. Through this work, the project will test the role of the border zone as a functional linking device that establishes a specific choreographed series of events over time. Other themes relating the contemporary identity of the border include the notions of threshold and symbolism, and the concepts appropriateness in the contemporary context of the modern border. As a method to best explore these ideas, mapping and the metaphor of infrastructure networks have been used.
Thesis Premise: Re-presenting the Border.
In a time where the machinery of globalization leaves few aspects of our modern lives untouched by omnipresent global connectivity of economics, labor, commodities and information, its influence has also profoundly altered the role of the border in the twenty-first century. As facilitated by globalization, free markets, and increased mobility, (Romero, 2008; Cruz 1999; Herzog 1990), have allowed all things to become irreversibly networked and interconnected throughout the world. When these influential mechanisms and polices fail to abide by geographical borders as they once historically did, the question is what role is left for the today’s boarder to play?
Within this framework, not only has the functional role of the contemporary boarder changed, but so has its identity and symbolism. Boundaries were once geometric lines, etched by transnational treaties that ran across sparsely populated frontier territory at the edges of nation-states. They were heavily fortified by governments since they represented, both functionally and symbolically, the outer lining of the sovereign nation-state, (Herzog, 1990). Thus in light of this, I would suggest that there is in fact only one role left to fulfill for the modern border, and it is very much utilitarian one.
In this time, borders have essentially become an instrument for controlling the flow of people; and to do this objectively, they must shed the political and symbolic connotations that once were important. In addition to this, borders now operate as component of the larger interconnected systems which have turned hard lines into fuzzy, hybrid zones. In a time where people, information, and the culture (in the form of media), travel much more freely from one geographical area to another, the role of the border is much better serves to act as a threshold more than an identifiable boundary.
Primary Area of Study: From Physical Borders to a Borderless World?
As early on in history as the founding of the city of Rome, establishing borders has generated conflict between opposing parties. In 753BC., twin brothers Romulus and Remus demonstrated this fact when they set out to establish their own city that would become Rome. Upon finding a suitable location, Romulus lowered his plough shear making a furrow in the earth that was to define the perimeter of the new city. Following this, Remus jumped back and forth over the mark in the earth that represented the city limits, mocking the work of his brother and his less then concrete method of defining the limits of his new city. In return, Remus was promptly killed by his brother for his apparent disregard for the boundaries of his new city.
Until the 19th century, the role of the border strove to more equally balance only two identities, one functional, and the other symbolic: protecting countries’ populations from outside threats, regulating the flow in and out of geographical boundaries, and the symbolic, helping to define socio-cultural identities within nation-states, (Romero 2008).
New conceptions of the role of borders within faculties other than architecture, are increasingly conceiving of borders in terms of function, rather than form or place. In history, traditional links between territory, identity and sovereignty are being called into question. In political science, static views of borders are being displaced by accounts of multidimensional frontiers where states exercise only limited accounts of control. Finally, questions are being raised in cultural and comparative studies where, borders are viewed primarily as signifiers of culture and identity, (Donnan and Wilson 1999). Conversely however, I again suggest that culture is equally as mobile as manufacture goods and information, thanks o porous boarders and technology.
Various nation-states and territories have dealt with the changing role of the boarder in different ways. In the case of North America, the U.S. has chosen to strengthen its border with Mexico by constructing an 1100 kilometer, 4.0m high security fence with anti-vehicle trenches, lighting, surveillance cameras and motion detectors that separate it from its largest suppliers of goods. Currently, the U.S. has more boarder control guard agents patrolling the U.S. Mexico border, than they do soldiers in Afghanistan, (Romero, 2008).
Despite this alleged improved control over who enters the U.S. illegally, as many as 465 Mexican citizens have died on the U.S. side of the boarder each year after illegal crossing, despite the new security fence that is well under construction.
In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinian State, Israel has also looked to constructing a security fence as a solution to separate itself in the West Bank from the Palestinian controlled surrounding area. The fence which continues to be constructed today, divides neighborhoods, cultural groups, and economies of the area, all in an attempt to keep terrorists out of the West Bank. Again, despite these extravagant efforts, suicide bombers continue to inflict much fear, and cause many deaths a year in this so called protected area. However, not all countries have chosen to entrench their boarders in this way.
EuroAirport Basel-Muhouse-Frieburg is the first jointly managed, fully tri-national airport whose property operates under international law, and not by either of the three countries who manage it. In the U.S., an internal Mexican boarder of sorts is being constructed in Kansas City. How is this possible? Noting that Kansas is the geographical center of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a customs station will inspect cargo in the heart of the U.S. before sealing the contents and allowing free passage at the true Mexico, U.S. frontier border without inspection by customs officials. Thus, another essential element of traditional frontier border crossings has been eliminated.
Program: Check Point - Neutral Space
In light of the new role of the modern border, dual programmatic components will be required. The functional aspects of a border check point will still exist, along with a specific choreographed experience of transition.
The functional programmatic elements will include interior public, a rest area, initial and secondary inspection areas, and interview offices. The support component of the functional program includes administration, employee areas, and related support programs. A commercial cargo scanning and inspection area with holding warehouse is not being included in the proposal at this time under the premise of the Kansas City inspection station technology. Existing U.S. / Canadian facilities of similar scope have a floor area range of 3000 – 3500 square meters. By eliminating the commercial traffic aspect, the project is free to exist away from major commercial good transportation corridors.
In the case of the experiential intervention, the act of transitioning over the border will have a distinct beginning, middle and end through a deliberate choreographed sequence. The intention here is to establish a clear sense of leaving behind, neutrality, and finally arrival. It will be a space to reflect, but most importantly, a mechanism to leave behind feelings of possession and ownership.
This aspect of the project will allow experimentation in how the physical and perceptual experience changes overtime and influence the cerebral experience. The premise set out by Leslie Gill in the Columbia advanced studio, will provide the guiding framework to follow, or disprove for the initial experimentation. We assimilate knowledge through the dissemination of signs and clues. We investigate man’s ability to track information within the disparate environment, focusing on both the physical attributes (movement, duration, sequence, vision, and simultaneity) and the cerebral realm (claustrophobia, agoraphobia, paranoia, segregation, emancipation, repose and bliss) in an attempt to build a respite for both the psyche and the body” (Leslie Gill, Columbia Advanced Studio, 1993)
Site: Blurred Edges and Perpetual Limits
Although a specific geographical site for the project has yet to be determined, the ideal typology exists in multiple locations around the world. The selected site will focus on the neglected area, or the neutral ground that lies between the official checkpoints of two countries in a border crossing area. It is only in this unique instance of the in-between, where a site can be defined more by its geographical proximity to other entities, than by its own qualities. This area is the ambiguity of a world, defined by geographies of contradiction, bordered and fluid at the same time: it wants to be one and many simultaneously, (Teddy Cruze, 1999).
It is not uncommon for countries to generally ignore the actual geographical line that divides them in a border crossing complex, instead choosing to enforce the boundary of their own checkpoint, leaving these areas devoid of ownership and enforcement. This zone of in-between, will host the transitional component of the program to further support the idea of neutrality. By existing in a state devoid of ownership, it is a place without identity and is therefore inherently neutral. This buffer zone area is the ideal host for the program of transitional space which strives to shake off associations with the adjacent countries.
The transitional “buffer zone” is an ambivalent fragment of space which seems to belong neither to the U.S. nor to Mexico. Within it, thought of reality are suspended and replaced by invented, momentary Utopies: one escapes to a place situated only in the imagination where all things are real. This imagined place is constructed of connections, not of separations; of readings, not categorizations, (Teddy Cruze,1999)
In the case of the U.S. and Tijuana Mexico, the actual checkpoint is located several hundred meters in to the U.S. from the geographical boundary. The true boundary is barely marked by dots in the pavement and disappears temporality, as venders roam back and forth freely over the political division, (Cruz, 1999).
Mode of Production: Mapping
The proposed mode of production is divided into two approaches that correspond to the dual scales of the project. By mapping and the analysis of the found data, both the influences, and network systems acting on the site can be determined. At this point, the metaphor of architecture as infrastructure can be applied as a strategy to integrate the intervention in to the border zone condition.
Infrastructures organize and manage complex systems of flow, movement, and exchange. They provide a network of pathways, work through systems of locks, gates, and valves – a series of checks that control and regulate flow (Stan Allen 1993, Colossal Urbanism, Advanced studio MIT). By following Allen’s model, relationships between infrastructure and the larger networks and systems of transportation, human migration, economics, and space shaping forces can be translated into a physical architecture that will inform the arrangement and function of the border zone area.
Once the project has been adequately positioned, the second, more direct modes of production can be explored that corresponded to the idea of interaction or interface. Further studies in the concept of symbolism and representation will also be valuable once the larger, organizing aspect of infrastructure and network have been evaluated. Additional studies of permeability will also provide information as a method to controlling the movement of people, once the project has reached that stage.
Conclusion: Blurred Edges and Limits.
Globalization erases certain borders while entrenching others, and at the same time establishing and redrawing yet others, (Gready, 2004). From the work of individuals in the multiple fields of history, sociology, physiology and architecture, we realize that the traditional roles of the border have been greatly altered. In fact, under these conditions, it is now more appropriate to describe a boarder as a boarder zone, addressing the fact that many influences that once created the hard edged borders have themselves become blurred.
Today, functional and pragmatic matters of the boarder still remain in the form of people control. For all nation-states, it is still vary much an issue regarding who passes, where, and why. This again, implies the notion that the borders primary role could be transitional space and threshold more then ever before. The challenge now however, is to arrive a method to strip away non-valid symbolisms and associations that make reference to the values of nation-states in the form of a border crossing.
List of Primary Sources:
Cruz, Teddy., Boddington, Anne, eds. 1999. Architectural Design. Architecture of the Borderlands. London: Academy Additions.
This collection of original articles is the last to be published on the issues and circumstances that form the influences of architecture in borderland conditions. The wide range of articles speaks to a host of topics that address the changing role of borders internationally.
Romero/LAR, Fernando. 2008. Hyper-Board: The Contemporary U.S. Mexico Border and its Future. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Romero presents in his book a multidisciplinary approach to analyzing the evolution of the “boarder”, and its ever growing importance in the contemporary global context. He also describes in detail the multiple factors that have influenced these changes as of late. Following an exploration of these themes at a global scale, he then narrows the work to the Mexico / U.S. border. The accumulation of data relating to demographics, economics, sociopolitical data and more, provides a sound basis for the cause for change and the redefinition of the idea of boarder today. Following this, Romero goes so far as to anticipate future scenarios of North America in regards to the nature of the future border. However, this information proved to be less applicable.