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Mapping CUU has been a collaborative research exercise with the participation of 12 students from 5 universities and different disciplines -architecture, regional planning, anthropology-. With support from the Municipal Institute of Planning, the workshop took place in the city of Chihuahua during May of 2012. Four intensive days of research, conversations with guest experts and exchange of information and ideas about water resources and systems, manufacturing industry and economy, mobility and ecology were the core agenda of it.

Critical mapping is an effort to understand in a collaborative way our cities, be both critical and creative about their urbanization challenges, and to learn in the process how to contribute together from our different fields.

Commissioned by Paola D. Aguirre (Master in Architecture of Urban Design by Harvard University) the -part documentary and part montage- film digs the first critical mapping workshop and gazes at the texture, contour, color and contrast of the landscape and the people from the chihuahuan territory.

Directed by: Óscar Enríquez Produced by: Paola D. Aguirre Featuring music by Manuel Valdez

Rio Grande/Bravo Watershed

Graphics/research project: somethingaboutmaps

Water as a platform for cooperation

The Rio Grande/Bravo is a transboundary water source shared by the United States and Mexico. At this time in Mexico there is limited capacity to develop efficient management plans for the water in the Rio Grande/Bravo basin, given the existing infrastructure and the methods of application and distribution of the water.

The Center for Research in Water Resources (CRWR) of the University of Texas at Austin in cooperation with several Mexican agencies is developing a binational dataset to build hydrologic information systems, which can be used to support hydrologic analysis and modeling in the Rio Grande/Bravo basin. This dataset consists of an ArcHydro-based Geographic Information System and relational data base containing hydrologic and hydraulic information from American and Mexican sides.

Project: WATER MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR THE RIO GRANDE/BRAVO BASIN. By Carlos Patino, Daene C. McKinney & David R. Maidment. CRWR-UT.

#water #rio grande #rio bravo #mexican-american border #river #basin #watershed #transboundary

The Other Border

Canada and the U.S. share an amazing geographic feature: The Great Lakes.

Water as a common ground has brought many challenges and controversies through the years along this border region, but also has been a great excuse for collaboration and initiatives.

The Great Lakes Century is an initiative, a vision that Philip Enquist shares and leads from Chicago.

Welcome to UNA

This space is becoming a tool to archive research, projects and initiatives that work within the context of the Mexican-American border. My lastest finding, after recalling a conversation with David A in Guadalajara last October, was through ArchDaily. First, David mentioned a competition back in 2005, which I thought it was Arquine's, but then I found this project by Holm Architecture Office (HAO):

Check it out. Welcome to UNA - United North America.

The Bridge and the Park

Last year, Arquine called for submissions for its annual design competition located for the second time in the context of the Mexican-American border. A Media Park in the PRONAF area in Ciudad Juárez (PRONAF stands for 'Border National Program'). Back in 2004, the theme of the competition was proposing a 'pedestrian border crossing' in response to the El Paso and Ciudad Juárez context. Very particular social, ecological and economic challenges are embedded in both subjects.

Several competitions have been organized by other organizations, and many other academic institutions have been studying and addressing this the border context and its myriad dynamics through design solutions. It would be interesting to see the the different approches and work compiled, assembled and organized. Well, there is an idea to work with.

Fronteras - Natura

Social mapping >> Hero Report

Hero Reports / Crónicas de Héroes is a campaign of positive thinking. It gives citizens a place to report acts of civic courage and other positive contributions to society that they have witnessed. We believe that given the right tools all citizens can create a stronger sense of civic pride and help build a more civil society.

Hero Reports is a project by Yesica Guerra developed at MIT Center for Civic Media.

If space can be an instrument of conflict, politics and militarization, by the same token it could also be the agent of social change [...] One has to imagine the possibility to construct an urbanity that emerges from conflict.

An open-ed from Mexico City by Jose Castillo, DOMUS

Read the complete article

Some remarks and thoughts about the South American Project symposium at Harvard GSD last October 7-8; a highly ambitious network project and a great reference for the BLW.

Changing Boundaries Map Exhibit - ASU

Maps tell stories.

The School of Transborder Studies at the Arizona State University is presenting the exhibit Changing Boundaries that tells the story of how the U.S.-Mexico border evolved over the past four centuries.

October 10 - December 1

Strategy 4x4

The BLW aims to establish a collaborative framework that includes four parallel areas of action; from research to communication. The tasks, themes and activities are intended to weave a network of people thinking-working in this region, to provide them with information reliable and updated, and to disseminate this thinking and research to the overall community, from decision makers to citizens of this territory.

We are studying existing frameworks and experience of other collaborative initiatives in order to select the most suitable for this context.

12,425,100

Over twelve million people have been counted living in the 28 cities and metropolitan areas along the border territory. Only three American cities -San Diego, Laredo, and McAllen- surpass in population their sister Mexican cities/villages.

Source: The Borderless Workshop based on data from Census 2010 (INEGI, US Census Bureau)

Extending imaginary lines

PE3 it's an initiative co-organized and produced by Teddy Cruz, Oscar Romo and Andrea Skorepa based in the context of San Diego / Tijuana.

The Political Equator was conceptualized by Teddy Cruz in 2005. Considering the Tijuana-San Diego border as a point of departure, The Political Equator traces an imaginary line along the US–Mexico border and extends it directly across a world atlas, forming a corridor of global conflict between the 30 and 36 degrees North Parallel.

Database for Projects in Binational Sister Cities

The Colonias Monitoring Program provides a publicly accessible, binational, GIS database to enable civic leaders and citizens to inventory, analyze, and monitor growth, housing, and infrastructure in border communities. High-technology tools are provided to support planning efforts and development along the border, using a sustainable and comprehensive approach. The collective information can be used by nongovernmental organizations in preparing grant and loan applications for community-improvement projects.

Hyperborder - 6 years later

In 2005, the first Hyperborder conference took place in the sister cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. It brought together participants from academia, business and government sectors from both countries to increase awareness of the region’s challenges and opportunities and outline steps to foster its growth and development.

I have been trying to track the efforts afterwards, and many initiatives have taken place since. The BLW will try to bring them together again, but also to include numerous new ideas ans work develop by other creative and active minds.

Apart from the publication, this is all the digital information that is left from what it seems to have been a very fruitful conference: Hyperborder

#conference

Dead end to Open-ended

I am having a conversation this weekend with Julia Farr. I was very excited to read Julia's contribution this week in the SLUM Lab magazine, just issued this month. The SLUM Lab is a collaborative project founded by UTT and Columbia University. Her article was a brief, yet had a strong statement:

"The US-Mexico border is an active, varied and mixed zone: It should be treated as such. A fence is not the answer."

Julia Farr has a background in Environmental Planning and its completing her Master of Landscape Architecture at City College of New York.

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