The Border Design Lab aims to amplify the unique design opportunities and challenges presented by this complex environment, enabling students and faculty to co-produce knowledge, intervene, and engage in binational design projects.
USD BORDER COMMITMENT
The Border Design Lab, founded by Adriana Cuéllar, builds upon USD’s long-standing cross-border initiatives, including Mulvaney Center for Community, Awareness and Social Action on Border Immersion Programs, Changemaker Hub, and the Kroc Institute of Peace and Justice Cross-Border Initiatives.
Established within the Architecture Program in the Department of Art, Architecture, and Art History, the lab expands USD’s border engagement through design-driven, interdisciplinary research, fostering a generation of designers engaged in reciprocity with people, history, and the environment while remaining attuned to the shared US/México territory.
The Border Design Lab is committed to bridging the gap between academia and the local border community. Our primary goal is to advance design research topics on border conditions, intersecting architecture, urbanism, landscape, culture, and urban history through speculative, historical, and applied design projects. By developing a growing repository of binational design projects, partnerships, exhibitions, and publications, we aim to build long-lasting impact projects that influence design thinking across generations. The ultimate goal is to build binational knowledge and design advocacy with social and environmental impact, contributing to our shared history and desires, while empowering the local community, academia, and future designers, to drive positive change in the border region and beyond.