From the Bookshelves: Hyperborder

Check out Hyperborder: The Contemporary U.S./ Mexico Border and It’s Future by Fernando Romero.

Here is a blurb:

Roving vigilantes, fear-mongering politicians, hysterical pundits, and the looming shadow of a seven hundred-mile-long fence: the US/Mexican border is one of the most complex and dynamic areas on the planet today. Hyperborder provides the most nuanced portrait yet of this dynamic region. Author Fernando Romero presents a multidisciplinary perspective informed by interviews with numerous academics, researchers, and organizations. Provocatively designed in the style of other kinetic large-scale studies like Rem Koolhaas’s Content and Bruce Maus Massive Change, Hyperborder is an exhaustively researched report from the front lines of the border debate.

Hyperborder presents a contemporary perspective of the U.S.-Mexico border by discussing its present circumstances and provoking new thought for its future. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, the book offers a comparative analysis of economic, political, cultural and social conditions on both sides of the border thus shedding light on the various issues that burden the region today. In an effort to address these current problems, Hyperborder presents scenarios that offer new approaches for an improved future of the U.S.-Mexico border. This investigation stemmed from a heightened awareness of the growing impact the U.S.-Mexico border has on the daily lives of Mexicans and Americans alike. Despite the current contrasting political and economic circumstances of the bordering countries, the increased levels of human, cultural and economic exchanges between the U.S. and Mexico are forging an unprecedented degree of interdependence: each nation’s future depends on that of the other. As it is the most active international divide in the world—indeed a hyperborder—it serves as a telling case study for the role played by borders in the global arena today and their potential influence on international relations, world economics, and living standards in the future.

About the Author Fernando Romero is the founder of Laboratory of Architecture (LAR), a Mexico City-based architecture firm established with the ambition of addressing contemporary society through a process of architectural translation and urban study. He worked as an architect in the office of Rem Koolhaas from 1996 to 1999 and has designed buildings around the world. Romero was born in Mexico City, where he currently resides.

And its a beautiful book with lots of cool pictures!

KJ