Archinect
Marilyn Stephanou

Marilyn Stephanou

Ames, IA, US

anchor

Shared Ecology Beyond Borders

The project of the US Embassy in Mexico City raises ecological awareness of the consequences of building the border wall between the US and Mexico. The negative effects that the border wall will have on the ecosystems they share, surpasses political matters that the US finds to be problematic. Building this wall in order to fix our political problems, will have severe implications on wildlife and vegetation throughout this region and is not worth the temporary fixes it could potentially create. The border wall will interrupt animal migrations of several species, resulting in extinction of various large cats, birds, butterflies, reptiles and more. The building of the wall, will also change the course of rivers and disrupt wetlands through its process. The silt runoff as well as flooding and erosion caused from the construction will harm many rare and native plants, such as cacti and cypress trees. The embassy puts an emphasis on the landscape, by bringing many of the vendangered plants in and around the building and also brings awareness to many of the animals whose migration paths would be interrupted. It experiments with the tension in the relationship between the US and Mexico and their shared ecology, by playing with shared spaces and separations in how you move through the site and how you interact with the landscape.

 
Read more

Status: School Project
Location: Nuevo Polanco, Mexico City, Mexico
Additional Credits: Professor: Ivonne Santoyo-Orozco
Team: Madeline Bany