B-018 | Borderland
TJ-BCN-CDMX 2024

A creative research project exploring informal housing along the border between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California—a context where contrasting economic realities coexist, with the United States positioned as one of the world’s largest consumer markets.

In this environment, discarded resources from California become materials for constructing informal housing, revealing a system of resourcefulness, adaptation, and social resilience.

The study examines how these material and spatial fragments transform into collective expressions of aspiration and self-management, shaping unique landscapes that challenge conventional stigmas surrounding informality.

Through a case study, the project identifies patterns and dynamics that reveal new possibilities for architecture, inspiring concepts that emerge from social realities and the irregular elements of recycling.

The research culminates in a series of abstract models that reinterpret and honor these practices through a dystopian vision of a hyper-dense future city. The project proposes an alternative architectural paradigm that questions traditional conventions and explores new ways of building through informality, resourcefulness, and emerging creativity at the border.

SUPPORT

TFM — ETSAB, Barcelona
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Research supported by
Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (SNCA)

Case Study
Tijuana, Mexico