construcción marginada
community
immigrant communities
Year
2018-2019
location
Juarez, Chihuahua
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Construcción Marginada is a thesis proposal approved and accepted for the Master of Science in Architecture with a Computational Ecologies concentration at the University of New Mexico
A counter effect to the rapid development within the Juarez/El Paso region has been the marginalization and experience of urban blight of immigrant communities in Juarez. Construction methods within this area are not only subpar, but often dangerous for those that inhabit the region. Very little has been done to renew these districts and uphold the population’s rights to adequate housing.
This research project focuses on a systematic way to re-network the established industry model placed in Juarez, allowing a greater resiliency for those marginalized. Inadequate housing is an adverse effect of poverty and unavailability of materials, signaling towards the need for a systematic approach to labor while producing the materials required for opportune living situations. Implementing an “industry” that acts as a network throughout Juarez allows for a congruency to be established, mitigating the separation particular areas have experienced. These complex network relations can then be useful in understanding economic disparities among the working class in the Juarez border region. An argument for the development of better systems of commerce and industry in impoverished communities is founded on the prevalence of systems that have set these kinds of inequitable cities, such as free trade zones, having historically diminished the worker’s rights and standards of living.
The regions affected by poverty, illiteracy, crime, and disparity can be subjected to the improvements by the residents themselves through their acquired skills and new material availability. A new prosperous economy could emerge from such endeavor, fortifying the communities in need, while supplying them with the materials necessary for self sustainable housing and bring new economic viability to these areas and communities through earthen materials.
Investigation into the systemization of industries within the Juarez region reveals an effective mechanism that has allowed the formation of a billion dollar export industry within the area. In order to understand the faculty by which the FTZ implementation was successful, a closer look into city growth and development was made. Growth models show the spread of the city from the West-Central area of Juarez into newer developed regions to the East.
The majority of the labor force employed by maquiladoras is housed within the older regions of Juarez along the foothills of the mountains. Disproportionate levels of poverty and illiteracy inhabit this region, having a positive correlation with violence and crime, while a negative correlation with the location of maquiladoras.
In order to substantiate the need for architectural intervention within the visible disparities in Juarez, data dealing with violence (middle), maquiladora permeation (top), material distribution, and illiteracy and poverty rates (bottom) were mapped out.
