Border Architecture: Control, Exclusion, and the Potential for Encounter

Camilla Ghisleni's article for ArchDaily explores how architecture functions as a tool of border control and exclusion, while also examining its potential to reimagine mobility. Drawing on Michel Foucault's panopticon (1975) and Rem Koolhaas's 1972 project "Exodus, or The Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture" (with Elia Zenghelis, Madelon Vriesendorp, and Zoe Zenghelis), the piece argues that border architecture—from the US-Mexico wall (30 feet high) to checkpoints like Gevgelija on the Greece-North Macedonia border—embodies political agendas. The Gevgelija checkpoint's modernist design (1960) was demolished in 1990, marking the end of Yugoslavia; today, a wire fence blocks refugees. Yet alternatives exist: Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman's UCSD Community Stations network in Tijuana-San Diego; Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello's 2019 pink teeter-totters on the US-Mexico border; and the publication "Two Sides of the Border: Reimagining the Region" curated by Tatiana Bilbao, featuring student projects like Marilyn Reyes's monarch butterfly rest stop and Hallie Black's floating building. The article concludes that architecture alone cannot change exclusionary policies but can create dignified spaces.