AquíAquí
How do you unbuild a wall? AquíAquí brings together the fields of design, public policy, social programming, material science, and activism to build community by dismantling division.
AquíAquí is a grammar of elements that reposition to offer the widest range of programming possibilities. It is a space for ceremony, for breaking bread, for protest, for celebration, for entertainment, for organizing, for community. Three colossal concrete elements pivot with ease to transform a single wall into a series of conditions that bracket and define space without enclosing it. Space radiates around, between, and beyond these defining elements. There is no perimeter, container, or finite solution—instead, a range of possible configurations. AquíAquí can be a space for an intimate family meal, or for a crowd of thousands.
This outdoor community center is designed with robust but loose concrete elements that offer structure to string canopies for shade, hammocks for lounging, or lighting for ambiance. The thickness of the concrete also provides a thermal lag, cooling bodies during the day and warming them in the evening. Architecture can be more than a container to enclose space. AquíAquí imagines an alternative space to gather communities at a range of scales in a well-defined exterior condition. AquíAquí is a malleable infrastructure, a blank canvas for intervention, a central destination, and a center for community in an uncertain future. It is a place for community that celebrates that joy of coexistence.
In an effort to exercise the challenges of a community center in uncertain times, AquíAquí is launched as a case study in a site that is all too familiar with division. AquíAquí (or HERE HERE) refers to both sides of a complex whole defined by the people who live, work, and play at the confluence of two nations—the border region of Mexico and the United States.