Patchwork: 76km between Juárez and El Paso

Author

Naheyla MedinaFollow

Date of Award

Spring 6-1-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Architecture (MArch)

Department

Architecture

First Advisor

Amelyn Ng

Second Advisor

Debbie Chen

Third Advisor

Germán Pallares-Avitia

Abstract

Located at the western edge of Texas where the Río Bravo ~ Rio Grande, becomes the border between México and the United States. Resides a spectacle of misconceptions that, along with an expansive corten steel border wall embedded into the earth, live to suppress the histories, culture, and environment entangled together like patchwork along this border space. The built environment influences our daily experiences, and our daily experiences can often influence our built environment. This project seeks to leverage, murals as a medium, creative writing, and architectural representations, to rework the mapping between Mexico and the US. Honing in on three sites within a 76 km span, that make up Juárez ~ El Paso: Grandpa’s House, Chamizal, and Paso del Norte. Mapping along the border typically entails a top-down aerial map prioritizing one side over the other. Constructed here is a counter-mapping of underrepresented histories that embed this land, memories that are personal to my experience, and a collection of texts that have been derived from both historical, social, environmental, and political contexts and personal memories.

This thesis project serves as a collection of Pathwork. Unfolding practices, within 76 km of border space, and the stories embedded within. Made physical through a mural constructed in a series of four 6 foot x 3 foot wooden panels constructed from salvaged wood offcuts.

Recommended Citation

Medina, Naheyla, "Patchwork: 76km between Juárez and El Paso" (2024). Masters Theses. 1274.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1274

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.