2023 | The Post-Borderzone | Advanced Studio
Instructor: German Pallares | The Rhode Island School of Design

In 2022, an airplane carrying nearly 50 Venezuelan asylum seekers arrived at Martha’s Vineyard airport, a political maneuver orchestrated by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. This project challenges the narrow architectural view of the México/United States border as merely a fortification, instead framing it as a filtering mechanism. It aims to reconstruct notions of the border to create spaces that address asylum-seeker shelter and support infrastructure in the U.S. The objective is to reimagine a type of citizenship that transcends political divisions, promotes demilitarization, indigenous autonomy, and inclusive community making. After researching Martha’s Vineyard’s food systems, I identified a site for agricultural production and designed a community space for migrants. This project serves as a guide for learning farming techniques and local ecologies, emphasizing farming as a healing activity and an opportunity for empowerment, while providing sustainable conditions for year-round use.