Send my love to Tijuana -- Tijuana sends her love : the transcendental Tijuanense telecommunications bridge to everywhere

Send My Love to Tijuana I Tijuana Sends Her Love replaces an existing pedestrian bridge that connects two vibrant neighborhoods in Tijuana, Mexico. The bridge is strategically situated to integrate itself into the city's urban fabric, while maintaining visibility from the United States Border and the San Ysidro Border crossing, the most heavily trafficked border crossing in the world. There, passage is tightly controlled, extending wait-times to unbearable lengths for even those permitted to cross legally. Nearby, my project provides an alternative portal that is universally accessible to those who wish to reconnect with their loved ones by way of another, virtual means: free videoconferencing within dedicated spaces. These spaces range in scale, beginning with the precedent of the phone booth for private, intimate conversations and ending with large-scale public projection zones for families. In either case, families and loved ones are reconnected on opposite sides of the border in a communion whose significance is witnessed by the monumental scale and form of the architectural composition. Not only is the building's form significant, its details also contribute to its monumental character. While the fagade facing the United States is a severe 900 foot-long, 40 foot-high, rectangular, corrugated steel, reflection of the existing border "fence", its symbolic severity is subtly subverted by an array of millions of end lit fiber optic cables. These cables are translucent hairs that blow in the breeze and that channel in from the fagade through the building's folded steel structure, and out into rooms, out beside walkways, and out through ceilings.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Hale, Mary E., S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mark Goulthorpe.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49737

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/49737