VIRTUAL Barcelona

Abstract

Before meeting the Pacific Ocean, a last stream of water moves plants, air, and sediment across the Tijuana-San Diego border wall. The Yogurt Canyon, a unique unoccupied fragment in Tijuana, exists at this confluence of a watershed, the ocean, the borderline, and the military zone, where plants, animals, sewers, communities, restaurants, clinics, and migrants coexist. This paper investigates the border ecology of Yogurt Canyon, addressing its multidisciplinary challenges for preservation and integration. As Tijuana grows in an accelerated incremental manner, informal to corporate developments appropriate land resources without discrimination, converting fragments into opportunities for human survival or economic gains. Behind the city’s urban densification and expansion, geographic and natural ecosystems lie invisible and often in conflict with growth premises. From landscape interiors to national infrastructures, the Yogurt Canyon weaves the region’s natural and political history with opposing urban strategies. Through empirical observation, cartography, drawings, and urban-landscape studies, this paper deepens reflections on our interdependent existence with water ecologies, border contamination, and social narratives in direct disclosure to contrasting environmental and civic values in architecture and city-making. While navigating boundaries between humans, buildings, and nature, this study also highlights actions of design reciprocity explored with students at the University of San Diego, questioning the possibility of co-producing with the environment, disseminating preservation, ecosystem maintenance, and social integration.