Here, where average daily temperatures reach heights of 48ºC, migration through the region is deadly. By the 1990s, undocumented migration through the city centres of San Diego and El Paso was so high to the point where US Border Patrol implemented a policy called Prevention Through Deterrence. This was meant to increase border patrol in major populated areas thereby deterring illegal migration because the only option was to cross the border through the desolate Tucson sector. This created a funnel effect where migration rates began to rise rapidly through the Tucson sector, and due to the extreme climate, migrant deaths in the region accelerated. To this day, US Border Patrol has been known to harness the desolate landscape to encourage migration through the dangerous terrain. Since the year 2000, over 3600 cases of migrant deaths in the Sonoran Desert border region have been recorded, the majority attributed to hyperthermia or exposure. Cases of migrant deaths will only grow as climate change forces northward migration from Central and South America.

This thesis aims to realize a conceptual architectural undertaking. A project which employs architecture to critically question the space which the border occupies, that which is between the line’s edges, the tensions it creates, and the material and immaterial articulations it imposes.

Arizona OpenGIS Initiative for Deceased Migrants: Map of Migrant Mortality in the Sonoran Desert (2000-2021), Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner

concept sketches, february 2021

I began to conceptualize an architectural intervention which could create a bridge between the two sides of the line, allowing for a congregation around shared commonalities. Opportunities for congregation on the borderline are extremely limited, and when they are presented, there are many limitations which make gathering between the two sides especially difficult. The second guiding principle to the concept was to provide a massive shade canopy allowing immediate relief from the harsh desert climate .

roof plan with site context

I imagined the separation between the two counties as mediated by one, expansive intervention. Extending 500 metres back from either side of the International Boundary Line, this intervention takes shape as a massive shade canopy, in the centre of which lies an expansive landscape. Provoking inward congregation, the structure prompts visitors to convene over a shared reality: an environment whose continuity cannot be halted by the means of a wall.

axonometric

At once a practical gesture and a reflection of its immense context, the building spans 1000 x 1000 metres. Emerging from the desolate, dangerous, and endless terrain is a landmark, a destination, welcoming the passage and congregation of those who find themselves in this landscape. A seemingly infinite shade canopy stretches across the horizon. The antithesis of prevention through deterrence.

model s = 1/500

column plan

The singular roof plane is tied down by 2111 columns each varying in height and dimension. The building directly responds to a shifting ground plane, with fluctuating ceiling heights provoking awareness to the dynamic desert floor.

latitudinal section

The ground plane’s gentle slope from the southern to northern end sees ceiling heights vary from 20 to 2.7 metres.

Columns are arranged sporadically throughout the building, mimicking the dispersion of the native saguaro cactus of the surrounding landscape.

The saguaro is a tree-like cactus native to the border regions of the Sonoran Desert. On average the cacti grow to 12 metres in height, though some have been documented to grow upwards of 20 metres tall, significantly dwarfing the human scale.

Much like the desert environment, the random arrangement of columns allows for an infinite array of circulation patterns and spatial matrices.

Along the horizon, the columns merge with the continuous sight-lines of native desert flora.

A singular glass threshold wraps the perimeter, providing an envelope for interior space. Functioning as a means to dissolve the borderline within the building, the glass brings transparency to the process of border crossing where historically this hasn’t been the case. Enveloped in reflections of its surroundings both interior and exterior, the glass also functions as an optical lens through which the relief of the shade canopy and refuge offered by the structure extends infinitely.

floor plan

The programmatic design is meant to at once reflect typical bordercrossing typologies, while also presenting the notion that the program comes secondary to the structure of the building. Through freestanding dispersion amongst the columns the programmatic design alludes to the building’s ability to adapt to an ever-changing spectrum of bordercrossing environments. The programmatic design presented here is meant to be a reflection of what could be implemented if the building appeared tomorrow.

program is dispersed amongst the columns

Operating on the periphery in the external pavilion is a series of water stations and washrooms, providing a practical initial relief from the harsh climate in addition to the shade canopy above. This is in direct response to initiatives trying to supply water to migrants in the region routinely being shot down by USBP, sabotaging any chance for survival in the harsh climate. The water stations here span 40 metres, providing more than enough for everyone.

From the entrance, the repetition of apertures in the façade at once prepares for the large influx of migration and is critical of current conditions of a lack of bordercrossing access

entrances and exits

Elements such as endless arrays of asylum interview stations and application centres are meant at once to reflect the lack of such elements in current border crossing practices while exaggerating them to a point where access is granted for everyone

Families, travellers, and passerby congregate at enormous benches, next to endless arrays of passport application desks

Other program like enormous benches and private enclosures provide space for families and those separated by the border to congregate.

Duty free shops and displays scattered throughout the building allude to priorities placed on such elements in current border practice.

Asylum interviews and water are plenty

Rock enclosures provide spaces of privacy and solitude

In its form the building acts as a frame for a landscaped desert forest. Meant to provoke an inward congregation, the forest presents an opportunity to convene over a shared reality, being the continuity of landscape and terrain despite geopolitical division.

shade pavilions provide intimate places for contemplation on the surrounding environment

longitudinal section

Two ramps spiral up either side of the forest, crossing the borderline, allowing for new perspectives to be found at the top, either facing inward to the other side, or outward to the expansive horizon beyond.