Border Library and Public Park
The Border Library and Public Park is located on a property next to the international line between Mexico and the United States that starts from the international checkpoint to the sports unit. A project that approaches the border wall in an unprecedented way and generates an open elevated walkway that serves as a gateway to the city of Agua Prieta, Sonora.
Global Design & Architecture Design Awards 2023
Second Award | Public Building (Built)
Project Name: Border Library and Public Park
Category: Public Building (Built)
Studio Name: Fernanda Canales
The project is divided into two different concepts. On the one hand, a public park that, through a walkway with endemic vegetation, connects the international checkpoint with the sports center, passing on one side of the border wall. On the other hand, there is the library, which promotes culture and creates a space below it where all people who pass by this place have access.
The library elevated through arches open to the public park transforms a desolate place into a recreational and cultural space next to the Douglas border crossing, where more than 5,000 people pass through daily and until now they did not have a safe environment to rest, protect themselves from the sun or go to the bathroom.
The public space that this project provokes and promotes must be understood as a space for everyone, based on equality, in which various activities can be developed for the local population, which promote coexistence and exchange between inhabitants, in addition to reinforcing the sense of belonging and identity.
Through the spatial quality of the architecture and the construction of appropriate spaces, the well-being of the community is contributed by allowing the activities carried out there to be done in the best possible way. The designed architecture functions as the stage for the cultural dissemination of the Municipality in a safe and equitable environment for all inhabitants of the region. This project also seeks to organize the pedestrian and vehicular flow that crosses the international border crossing daily to and from the United States.
The design of the project responds to the climatic conditions of the site and promotes the use of economical, highly durable and low-maintenance materials, to generate the lowest environmental impact. Finally, the project promotes the creation of green spaces that allow the population to have contact with nature at an urban level.
Agua Prieta, Sonora. Library 625 m2 • Park (Surface): 25,050 m2
