Draft 1 12 March

FLUCTUATING BORDERS I – TIJUANA / SAN YSIDRO

PUERTO VALLARTA

FLUCTUATING BORDERS – II JUAREZ / EL

Inundating The Border: Migratory Spaces Within The Seam

El Paso, United States

infrastructure time people water ecologies

This project explores the border and migration between Mexico and the United States. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico The border is a fluctuating entity: what it is today is different from what it was in the past and what it will be in the future. Click next

Border Morphology

Thickening Migration and Colonias: Life at the Edge The Twin City Phenomenon: Policies As migrants such move as “Operation into border Hold cities the (temporarily Line” and “Operation and long Gatekeeper” term) they arehave forced increased to the Over the size past fifty cities along U.S. space: Mexico border have dramatically physical colonize the of outer theyears, urban border, edge, creating forming athe distinct improvised itinerant the “no-man’s settlements. land” between border cities. increased in size due to global economic forces. Border cities are bound together by these forces, yet they are politically and physically separated. United States

Aerial of Border

Views of El Mexico Paso and Ciudad Juarez: border effects of Operation “Hold The Line”.

What if the fixed line... migrates within the border space…

moments

hours

days

seasons

years

Proposed Design

Fluctuations

Roughly half of the US— Mexico border is delineated by the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo. The river border begins at the twin cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, where the shifting course of the river led to a one-hundred year border dispute. The dispute was resolved by moving the river northward and fixing it in place with a concretelined channel.

Existing Border Line: concrete lined channel

Former river channels El Paso, United States

Juarez, Mexico The historical fluctuations of the border are evident in the large urban void that still exists between the two cities If the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo is released from the concrete liner along the contested border region…. The river begins to meander, filling the void between the two cities and expanding the border space. Over time the border continues to fluctuate, constantly shifting in width and placement: a migratory edge.

Inundations: Water

Upstream dams allow for controlled and timed flooding of the area—a process requiring cooperation from both sides of the border.

Proposed border space Existing Juarez—El Paso Border

Infrastructure: As El Paso and Juarez continue to expand, there will be increased flooding from urban runoff. Returning the floodplain to the river anticipates these fluctuations and 100 year events.

Inundations: Occupation

Elevated Changes highways in Migratory water levels crisscross and riparian the siteecosystems and provide The Event: Festivals opportunities create fluctuating for shelter edgesand of human migrantengagement occupation Once a year the border island plays host to an international festival. The festival mimics others around the with the site. These provide a precedent formstoofexperiment ephemeralwith occupation within theand space. world in events which participants convergefor in other one place communal living forms of Border enforcement respond to these changes by temporary habitation. modulating where they patrol, creating oscillating parallel pathways.

Inundations: Ecologies

The return… Released from the concrete barrier, the Rio Grande seeps into the earth, giving rise to a diversity of spaces that restore the dynamic riparian ecosystem.

bosque

meadow

wetland

Existing Juarez—El Paso Border (United States) border line (Mexico) fences

concrete channels

Proposed Border

The surface of the border shifts with the river… continually creating, moving and altering emergent ecosystems

The indeterminate future… The border engages with entropic landscape processes and becomes a space of perpetual transformation. A tall grass meadow where a migrant sleeps, tomorrow becomes part of the flooding river. The river recedes, and changes its course. The space becomes part of a border patrol Border space is a series of momentary events that cannot be repeated. Before Now station. Years later the meadow is a bosque of trees…

End

mem or ial iz ing thos e who ha ve die d cro ssi ng In barren desert corridors between the Mexico and US border, native plant species are planted to provide food for the migrating monarch butterfly. Their treacherous journey echoes those made by desperate migrant workers.

5,000,000 undocumented immigrants have crossed the border into the US.

since 1994 3,600 mexican migrant have died, lost in the vast desert.

The monarch butterfly, Mexico’s symbol of departed souls, makes a bi-yearly migration from the US to Mexico.

On ‘Day of the Dead’ 300 million of these butterflies return to Mexico to hibernate.

This phenomenon is endangered due to the disappearance of nectar

Metamorphos is

Migratin g South

Milkweed Milkwee d

Chamis a

Hibernati ng

Southe rn Plants

Aster

Northern Habitat

June-August

Migrati ng South

September-November

Migrating North

Milkweed Chamis a Aster

Southern Habitat

November-March

Migrating North

April-May

In 2005 460 migrantsSightings died crossing the Concentration of Monarch and Deaths North/South Migration Pathways Sightings 261Monarch died in the Arizona desert border

Proposed Future Sites: Vamori Wash

Arizona/Mexico Border

The designed conservation corridor will be installed at this location. The greatest number of human deaths and monarch sightings have been

Protoype Site Vamori Wash

migrant and butterfly find their way through the desert. chamisa, milkweed and aster blossom in this corridor of lif memorializing those who have died crossing.

BORDER STORIES

MEMORY, TIME & NARRATIVES This project takes the STORY of the Mexican immigrant and invades the highway landscape.

The narratives are organized by: Songs & folklore written by immigrants over history Statistics from media

DEVELOPMENT TO CROSS TO NAVIGATE

a territory a desert

TO TAKE

phrases

TO NARRATE

a road

TO THREAD

a line

TO RECOGNIZE TO COMPREHEND TO ASSIGN TO HOST TO TRANSVERSE -FRANCESCO CARERI SELECTED TEXT: WALKSCAPES

a place symbolic values place names an adventure a map

BORDER CONDITIONS Poverty has forced many Mexicans to migrate for economic relief and survival.

Passage between the countries is controlled only in border cities forcing immigrants to take treacherous routes through the desert.

The official death toll over the last 10 years of immigrants trying to cross illegally is almost 3,000.

CONTEXT Along the 2,000 mile border between Mexico and the US there are four major highway corridors that accommodate traffic flow between the two countries. The highways intersect the major cities of both countries along the border.

SITE OF ACTION The project utilizes US Interstate 25 as a design intervention of BORDER STORIES. Located on the historic Camino Real Trail of New Mexico, Interstate 25 continues to serve the same purpose of transporting goods and people across the Southwestern state of New Mexico. Over 300,000 vehicles a day travel through New Mexico on I-25, creating a rich opportunity for mass communication. Rio Grande River Historical Camino Real US Interstate 25 Human Migration Corridors

CONSUMPTION SITE SPECIFIC MOMENTS LAYERED WITH LOCATION & TIME The average vehicle takes 2 tanks of gas to reach Santa Fe from Juarez.

SANTA FE

ALBUQUERQUE

SOCCORO

The average person needs 2 gallons of water per day when exercising vigorously.

The average person can walk 15 miles a day in normal conditions.

LAS CRUCES EL PASO JUAREZ, MX.

POINTS OF THE LANDSCAPE PROVIDES INTERVENTION

SANTA FE

OPPORTUNITIES & INVITES INTERPRETATION THROUGH:

ALBUQUERQUE

Experiences within a car

SOCCORO

Rest areas along the highway Views from the highway Highway signage

LAS CRUCES EL PASO JUAREZ, MX.

TRAVEL WITH A STORY…….

BORDER STORIES