UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design

Photograph — Clockwise from top left: Parama Suteja, Tiange Wang, Raveevarn Choksombatchai, Yunbo Yan, Margaret Zhou and Felix Yiu.

Three student projects from Professor of Architecture Raveevarn Choksombatchai’s ARCH 100D studio course have been selected for a design exhibition at Yale University in November.

Titled “Two Sides of the Border,” the exhibition was born from a collaboration between Yale Professor of Architecture Tatiana Bilbao’s spring 2018 studio and 13 different academic studios across the United States and Mexico. The project, which examined and researched architectural issues related to the US-Mexico border and its politics, looked at the economies, infrastructure, languages, history, and cultures shared between the two countries and the current political climate which emphasizes sharp differences across the border. “To redefine and reimagine the region as an integrated whole is a critical project for architectural, political, and cultural institutions today,” the exhibition brief states.

The three student projects chosen from the College of Environmental Design are “The Conveyor City” by Parama Suteja (B.A. Arch. ‘18) and Felix Yiu (B.A. Arch. ‘18); “Reimagining the River Border: Layered Permeability” by Tiange Wang (B.A. Arch. ‘18) and Margaret Zhou (B.A. Arch. ‘18); and “United City” by Yunbo Yan (B.A. Arch. ‘18). The show features models, maps, collages, and conceptual drawings that altogether convey the breadth of the architectural issues and challenges.

In Spring 2018, Choksombatchai’s ARCH 100D studio sought to reimagine the US-Mexico border wall as a conceptual catalyst for seeing and understanding the current socio-political and territorial conditions at the border region. The studio explored ways to address and approach the emerging situation from both practical and theoretical perspectives. Considering the current social and political contexts, the studio challenged the role of design in order to speculate and propose an alternative realities for the region.

The studio also addressed the contemporary issue of scale in regards to architectural design. Students explored the site and its visibility ranging from satellite images, regional maps, one-mile-radius territories down to an architectural scale with material details. These shifting scales drastically changed the visual registration of those sites and allowed creative readings of the landscape.

The exhibition opens on November 29, 2018 and runs through February 9, 2019 at the Yale Architecture Gallery in New Haven, CT. More information about the exhibition can be found here.