ABSTRACT
How might the analysis of borders and their built environments proceed if we analyze these spaces not only as territories but as commons? This essay focuses on a cluster of test cases of commons urbanism in the spaces between Tijuana (Mexico) and San Diego (United States). Since the mid 1990s, architect-scholar Teddy Cruz and colleagues at his San Diego-based firm, Estudio Teddy Cruz + Forman, have researched informal settlements in the “waste” spaces produced by industrialization, the inefficiencies and unsustainability of sprawl and obsolescence, and the increasing militarization of the international boundary by both countries. Cruz highlights the local but also transnational flows of construction materials, building techniques, and urban policy that are increasingly relevant given global climate change.
