ARCHITECTURE AS STEWARDSHIP
ARCHITECTURE AS STEWARDSHIP
Image credit: Mark Henle/The RepublicThis project explores the sociopolitical and ecological impacts of border architecture along the United States-Mexico border, focusing on the Tohono O’odham Nation. It examines how surveillance infrastructure—such as border walls and checkpoints—disrupts ecosystems, infringes on Indigenous rights, and becomes a site of resistance. Through research on ecological richness, including the migration of the lesser long-nosed bat, and first-person protest documentation, the project reveals how these militarized spaces, though designed for control, instead foster contestation and expose the human and environmental consequences of surveillance.
CONTESTATION + BORDER ARCHITECTURE
CONTESTATION + BORDER ARCHITECTURE
The architecture of border enforcement along the United States-Mexico border reveals both its physical and psychological impacts. By federal law, Border Patrol checkpoints must be “temporary” structures—small and deployable—though they often expand into larger, more permanent sites. The Arivaca checkpoint exemplifies this evolving infrastructure. During the September 2020 protest against the border wall at Quitobaquito Springs, Hia-Ced O’odham members Amber Ortega and Nellie Jo David were arrested and charged with federal offenses. While widely documented on social platforms, the protest received little mainstream media coverage. Screenshots below capture the tension and resistance. The Washington Post further highlights the community's struggle to protect sacred lands. On the Tohono O’odham reservation, “checkpoint trauma” is prevalent, as repeated encounters with Border Patrol leave lasting emotional scars, particularly on children. As described in Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security by Todd Miller, militarized checkpoints normalize aggressive searches and racial profiling, intensifying fear and control in the region.
