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Virginia Tech

Escuela sin Fronteras, School without Borders

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

What is the significance of a border? The lines that separate us are also a part of the framework that define who we are, how we build and where. A border can be as small in scale as a doorway, passing a person from one space into another, to the magnitude of an international boundary, a geopolitical line that determines culture, language, rights, and wealth. These boundaries with such a vast socioeconomic impact, have no predetermined physical manifestation. This begs the question, what could a border be? Or maybe more importantly, what should it be? This project explores these questions by investigating the border between the United States and Mexico. This 1,954 mile border, comprised of land and a river, is one of the more contested, violent, and emotional places of transition in the world. Already a heavily structured line, the border that separates the United States from Mexico has become a visible line, dividing the first world from the third world. This project argues that this border is not just a problem of international politics, but an architectural one. If we are to build our borders, they should be built as places of shared infrastructure, an economic investment in creating a zone of shared culture and learning that can still be simultaneously a place of security. Escuela sin fronteras, School without Borders, is a project that challenges the preconception of border, and introduces the possibility that a border is the first line in a larger framework that can define how we choose to live beside each other.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Architecture
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Architecture
Department dc:contributor.department
Architecture
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2018

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Mozinski, Theresa Jane
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Piedmont-Palladino, Susan C.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Archer, Scott Brandon
  • Emmons, Paul F.

Subjects

dc:subject × 3

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:16494
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/83928

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Mozinski, Theresa Jane. Escuela sin Fronteras, School without Borders. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/83928