Magazine

In June 2006, as Congress proposed to build a fence to physically separate the U.S. from Mexico, The New York Times asked a number of prominent architects to propose their own design solutions to the problem of this most tendentious border. The proposals were of little interest, practical or polemical,but not because there is no need for clear
thinking and new ideas, nor because conditions there fall outside the purview of architects and planners. Hyperborder is an altogether different type of intervention by an architect. Fernando Romero, principal of the Mexico City firm LAR, has compiled a tome of research about the conditions surrounding “the world’s longest contiguous international divide between a superpower and a developing nation.” The book is not the work of an expert but a deft compiler, gathering facts, statistics and history that elucidate the extremely complex and interconnected nature of a region that ignores national boundaries and affects (for trade, goods, people) territories far beyond it. Entries on everything from security to migration to the environment, along with copious information graphics, lay bare the significance and difficulties of the issues the growing region faces, while a series of possible future scenarios demonstrates the urgency of addressing these issues through comprehensive and bi-national planning and cooperation, rather than piecemeal responses, or very long fences.

This article appeared in the Winter 2007 issue of Next American City magazine. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

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