Architectures of Resistance

Spatial borders as sites of meaningful adjacencies and exchange.

Borders between countries, neighbourhoods, people, beliefs, and policies are proliferating and expanding despite what self-proclaimed progressive societies wish or choose to believe. For a wide variety of reasons, the early 21st century is caught struggling between breaking down barriers and raising them. Architecture is complicit in both. It is central to the perpetuation of borders, and key to their dismantling. Architectures of Resistance: Negotiating Borders Through Spatial Practices approaches borders as sites of meaningful encounter between others (other cultures, other nations, other perspectives), guided not by fear or hatred but by respect and tolerance. The contributors to this volume – including architects, urban planners, artists, human geographers, and political scientists – address spatial boundaries as places where social and political conditions are intensified and where new spatial practices of architectural resistance arise. Moving across contemporary, historical, and speculative conditions of borders, Architectures of Resistance discusses new and innovative forms of architectural, artistic, and political practice that facilitate constructive human interaction.

Contributors: Nishat Awan (UCL Urban Laboratory), Teddy Cruz (University of California San Diego), Sofia Dona (independent artist), Ursula Emery McClure (Kansas State University), Fonna Forman (University of California San Diego), Marisa Gomez (University of Texas at Arlington), Mohamad Hafeda (University College London), Paul Holmquist (Louisiana State University), Panos Leventis (Drury University), Eugene McCann (Simon Fraser University), Aya Musmar (American University of Cairo), Kristopher Palagi (Louisiana State University), Marc Schoonderbeek (TU Delft), Nicholas Serrano (University of Florida), Angeliki Sioli (TU Delft), Aleksandar Staničić (TU Delft).

Ebook available in Open Access. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

List of Figures
Acknowledgments

ARCHITECTURES OF RESISTANCE: Negotiating Borders through Spatial Practices
Nishat Awan, Angeliki Sioli, Kristopher Palagi

PART 1 — IN THE BORDERS

THE POLITICAL EQUATOR
Fonna Forman and Teddy Cruz

RECOLORING THE GREEN LINES: Street Art and Urban Identity in the Levant, 2000–2020
Panos Leventis

FICTIONAL WALLS: Dystopian Scenarios of Bordered Lives
Angeliki Sioli

SEWING BORDERS: Negotiating the Temporalities of Borders and Displacements
Mohamad Hafeda

PART 2 — THROUGH THE BORDERS

MAPPING ARCHITECTURES OF DISPLACEMENT
Nishat Naz Awan

WAY STATION AND ASYLUM: Border Conditions in Architectural Education
Ursula Emery McClure, Marisa Gomez Nordyke, and Paul Holmquist

POLITICS AND ARCHITECTURE OF BORDER CROSSINGS: The Case Study of Gevgelija in North Macedonia
Aleksandar Staničić

BORDERS AND IMAGINARY PASSAGES
Sofia Dona

PART 3 — BEYOND THE BORDERS

THE BORDER COMPLEX: Mapping Spaces of Simultaneity
Marc Schoonderbeek

TRUTH-SPOTS AND BOUNDARY-WORK: Encountering, Transcending, and Rethinking Boundaries in Cities and in Urban Studies
Eugene McCann

GREENWAY AS BORDER
Nicholas Serrano

THE SACRED INSIDE: Shameful Camera Encounters in the Refugee Camp
Aya Musmar

NEGOTIATING BORDERS THROUGH SPATIAL PRACTICES: A Conclusion
Angeliki Sioli, Nishat Awan, and Kristopher Palagi

About the editors and contributors

Index

Angeliki Sioli

Angeliki Sioli is assistant professor at the Department of Architecture, TU Delft.

Nishat Awan

Nishat Awan is professor of architecture and visual culture at UCL Urban Laboratory.

Kristopher Palagi

Kristopher Palagi is associate professor at the School of Architecture, Louisiana State University.