Border Urbanism

This opening chapter overviews the purpose of the book. It introduced a global initiative on border urbanism research and interdisciplinary collaboration in 2016, bringing over 28 researchers representing 28 countries to discuss various border-related issues in an international conference “Urbanism at Borders” held in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 2018. The book is undoubtedly not the first attempt to discuss border issues. However, it is instead the new interest that one might view this book as an opportunity for a “less-explored” subject of border discourse from architecture, urbanism, and other allied disciplines. The chapters in this book collated and demonstrated a renewed interest in the border issue within the built environment discourse. The overview sets the ambition of examining this critical discourse that has already been examined traditionally in various sociopolitical and related disciplines, which are much more advanced and critical. Nevertheless, the claim that architecture and urbanism do not necessarily intermingle with the border issue originated from the notion that the border subject belongs to a distinct, well-defined political science and allied discipline. Indeed, today we are positioned in a globalised world with more physically and digitally interconnected. However, we are in more unstable conditions than many centuries ago. We are subject to the fragility of conflicting ideologies, religion, economy, and the power–politics didactic relationship manifested in the fragility of our habitat and new challenges in restoring social and environmental sustainability. This book is a snapshot of the vast border issues yet to be researched from architecture and urbanism discourses.

The Ripoll and the Arenes rivers in Catalonia, Spain, have a complex relationship with the towns of Sabadell and Terrassa. Towns such as these, about 25 km from Barcelona, have historically relied on the rivers as a power source for textile mills. In contrast with their value to the region’s economy, the rivers have also brought devastation. On September 25, 1962, the rivers flooded both towns, and 441 people died. Despite this tragedy, the two water systems have maintained their importance to the towns and become the structural axes of Sabadell and Terrassa. Examination of these rivers and three other rivers in the area: the Riereta river, the Vallparadís river and the Palau river document their relationship to specific cities over time. It studies the rivers that, at one point, formed physical boundaries that separated towns and regions and continually posed risks to lives and livelihoods. This provides a basis for considering how these rivers and the larger water systems can serve as unifying elements that connect disparate urban areas with a population of about 574.700 inhabitants and a growth tax of 9.23 per 1000 inhabitants. Considering all scales and focussing on the territorial scale uses established methodology from three perspectives: ecology, landscape and town planning. Research findings identify river systems as structuring axes of the territory, the two urban conurbations of Sabadell and Terrassa. Furthermore, these findings reveal the river systems as spaces of opportunity in the territory’s future planning.

There are different typological approaches to demarcation and classification of boundaries in discourses about borders. One of the classifications is based on the components used to determine the boundaries, such as natural or human-made. Regarding boundary characteristics, the main issue is whether it divides two sides or connects them. In addition, there are other considerations for the relations between two sides of the boundary: alienation, coexistence or integration. Although there are some classifications for paired border cities, such as partitioned or duplicated, typological studies of cities located on the borders and frontiers are lacking. Worldwide, there are approximately 300 border towns, and approximately half of them are paired border cities. In this study, paired border cities and their urban networks are examined. Internal and external connections, functional differences using land-use decisions and cross-border relations are analysed to indicate the structural relationships between the cities. The most critical examples of each type of paired border city are selected. Finally, the main effects of boundaries on the different paired border cities worldwide are analysed and mapped.

Currently, an increasingly urgent need is to protect the cultural heritage, over many years, missing values and meanings as a result of the rupture and the various transformations from the Industrial Revolution that led to the abandonment of traditional technologies and ways of doing, at the expense of modernity and the mechanization of the processes of human creation. In Brazil, it was in 1920 that such goods, products of human creativity, and fruits of various social and historical methods became part of the conservationist ideas of the country, only then made arrangements to ensure their maintenance. This understanding intends to analyse the maintenance process, which deals with the protection and development guidelines focused on Ouro Preto, a world heritage site, a veritable laboratory for producing protective standards. Various instruments of the various spheres of Government were created throughout the twentieth century. However, the exaggeration of the protection and default on urban management transformed the city into a territory divided between historic X and non-historical cities. Even with the evolution of urban management practices to pursue sustainable development that reconciles the needs and potentialities, the insistence on treating the city depends on growth and conditioning, structural, aesthetic and economical, the historic. The standards of more recent heritage protection seem to perpetuate these paradoxes in establishing the bounding border of the historical and non-historical city.

During the twentieth century, the Persian Gulf’s regionalism created architecture representing the Persian Gulf, rather than each nation-state's distinct characteristics. This differs from contemporary historiographical thought. How international borders within the Persian Gulf have contributed to architectural development is an enlightening case study that considers the interface between modern architectural design vocabularies and regional design languages. Primary material from archives around Europe and the United Kingdom has formed a data set of buildings, architects and years constructed, establishing a correlation between building projects and geopolitical events. Furthermore, analysis of these events suggests that these events have caused geographical shifts in developmental focus and aesthetic evolution.

This research demonstrates that borders are geographical and socio-spatial and shape our urban spheres. Therefore, exploring the authenticity present in them is significant. Furthermore, some subcultures prevail in multicultural societies, creating cultural borders that expand beyond geographies. The authenticity can be measured by experimental ethnographic exercises focusing on the cultural borders these urban contexts inhabit. This is done through human interaction in three immersive mediums that act as symbols. The difference in reactions to these interactive mediums (symbols) is recorded through traditional ethnography. This research focuses on the segregation and marginalisation created by meanings that people interpret from the symbols exhibited as part of this research.

Sacred practices connected to the celebration of Saint George take place on the Island of Prinkipos (Büyükada), the largest of the so-called Princes’ Islands in the Sea Marmaras and is included in the urban context of Istanbul. A close examination of the pilgrimage to the monastery of St. George Koudounas on the day of Saint George’s commemoration (23rd April) provides insights into its importance as a liminal place in topography and a place that reflects the negotiation with important urban geopolitical boundaries.

During periods of heavily contested elections, accompanying political tensions are often most prevalent within informal settlements. Consequently, the prolonged political tensions experienced in Kenya during 2017 were expected to have the most adverse impact in Kibera, Nairobi, the largest informal settlement in East Africa. Fears about what could happen in Kibera were also informed by recent history, most notably in 2008, when many people were killed in the post-election conflict. Moreover, the marginalisation residents experienced in 2008 largely remain today. Differences between this urban area and the surrounding golf course and middle-class residential-gated enclaves are immediately apparent. Nevertheless, despite these deep-rooted issues and differences, the extent of the violence was considerably less than in 2008. The primary focus is understanding why relative peace prevailed in very challenging conditions. The analysis is based on research incorporating photovoice, focus groups and interviews with residents in early 2018. Photographs taken by participants framed the themes explored in greater depth through focus groups and interviews. A preliminary study of resilience also informed fieldwork in 2017. The research discovered that residents’ attachment to Kibera and collective sense of identification and cohesion contributed to weaker, more permeable barriers between potentially competing political supporters. A range of community-based initiatives, such as pacification messages and peace activities, partly created this greater sense of interconnections. Together, they contributed to deeper senses of self-control and broader forms of social control that restricted the potential for political tensions to descend into inter-ethnic violence.

While scholars in the region have extensively mapped research on Malaysia–Singapore relations, little has been stated about the participation of physical border landscapes in such geopolitics. The Causeway, a historic road and rail linkage between Singapore and Johor and the southernmost state in Peninsular Malaysia, serves as a case study to analyse the geopolitical landscape. The study elucidates research interests in governments’ relations and their impacts on everyday people's bordering process. The spatial transformations of the Causeway have been discussed in three phases, (i) namely the instigation of its checkpoints in 1967, (ii) its expansion in 1976–1989, and (iii) its partial transformation into a halved bridge in 2003. Until today, the Causeway's significance for people in Johor and Singapore remains, as evidenced by the massive volume of people and goods that traverse between the state capital and city-state daily. Moreover, economic and political developments are tangibly acted out in this border space and will continue to do so in years to come.

The middle-income white precinct in Melville, South Africa, and Johannesburg’s predominantly black post-apartheid city are still separate entities. This threatens the democratic production of space in a post-apartheid city like Johannesburg. Through a city-funded “bottom-up” approach, the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) funded a Community Participatory Design (CPD) project known as the Melville Precinct Plan. This plan involving the Melville Residents Association (MRA) helped voice a different opinion about how the urban area is envisioned concerning the Strategic Area Framework (SAF) set out by the City of Johannesburg. Several questions were central to this research. First, why does the MRA disagree with the Metropolitan Development Framework? To what extent do race and fear play a part in the argument? Second, how can a sustainable and equitable post-apartheid city be achieved? Third, what are the values of the government? How do they relate to policies, filter down to the municipal level, and make a difference in communities on an urban level? (Marinova and Hossain J Urban Regeneration Renewal 7:343–350, 2013, p 347). The relationship between pro-liberal urban development and planning projects and the responses of a resistant minority group in Johannesburg in 2017 are considered in this light. The post-apartheid city and the pertinent arguments for and against development are contextualised. What kind of development is essential on the city’s borders, what fears are synonymous with that and unfair and exclusionary practices are also considered? Melville Precinct Plan serves as a case study to examine its framing policies and the general outcomes to unpack how the borders, peripherals and edges are used politically to undermine generous public participation processes in planning a new vision of a community.

A variety of factors influenced India’s shift from hard power to soft power diplomacy in Nepal. The factors that influenced the Indian economic blockade on Nepal in 2015 and the interaction between the agent of power (India) and the subject of power (Nepali) are examined through a case study of the borderland city of Birgunj. It is argued that India shifted from hard power to soft power diplomacy in Nepal after the ‘unofficial’ border blockade imposed by India over Nepal for five months in 2015. The five key factors that influenced the shift from hard power to soft power policy are (1) the internationalisation of Nepal’s conflict; (2) the opening of border transits and construction of roads to China; (3) the trade agreement and signing of Chinese One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative by Nepal; (4) change in interpretation and recipient of activities of official Indian governmental and bureaucratic structures by the subject of power (Madheshi ethnic Nepali) and (5) contemporary political situation in India. The Borderland city of Birgunj is used to discuss these factors.

Almaty is the largest urban agglomeration in Kazakhstan with regional and global markets, the most significant business transit hubs, and Central Asia’s key transport corridors. The Almaty region borders the People’s Republic of China east and the Kyrgyz Republic in the south. Even though it has no ports and it relies upon road connections for global access, Almaty is the largest landlocked city. It has been experiencing rapid urbanisation and growth; it increased from 1.3 million in 1999 to 1.8 million in 2018. Unfolding the problems and prospects of the spatial and territorial development of Almaty agglomeration within the geographical constraint of the landlocked situation in the region was an initial goal. The research uses comparative geographical, cartographic, and dynamic statistical methods. GIS and remote sensing are also used to monitor and map urban areas, and infrastructure development. The research builds on these Geodatabases to establish the critical indicators of the quality of life of the Almaty agglomeration to monitor, manage, and forecast the regional development of the Almaty agglomeration. The research aims to establish the parameters that would aid the regional ambition to reach Almaty as the centre of science, investments, and human resources. Further, the objective is to provide a high quality of life under landlocked conditions. The research argues that Almaty should gain more from the innovative use of infrastructure as an antidote to the constraint of being landlocked, which points to the development of several international transport corridors, realising both transit and exporting potential Kazakhstan.

The big question that haunts urban design today is the classic chicken and egg question: people first? Alternatively, places first? Our cities are a synthesis of a physical and social fabric that confront and interact with each other in urban design. A new approach to urban design aims to sustain urban life’s social and cultural aspects, including people’s needs, wants, and hopes. Sustaining the socio-cultural fabric of cities can ensure people-centric and inclusive cities. This research investigates the five dimensions: people, places, networks, activities, and territoriality in Ranchi; which constitutes the social fabric of cities. These, when put together, arrange like a solved jigsaw puzzle and give a character to the city. Ranchi was created in Nov 2000 as the capital of the newly formed state of Jharkhand, located on the eastern side of India. In the past, Ranchi was known as the summer capital of Bihar and was a little larger than a town in terms of development. However, since then, it has been vigorously expanding in size, infrastructure, and population. This sudden expansion has created stress on the existing built environment. The large forest covers, agricultural lands, diverse culture, and pleasant climatic conditions have degraded and mainly decreased. The narrow roads and old buildings cannot bear the load of changing requirements, fast-improving technology, and a growing population. Hence, the built environment has been rendered unsustainable and unadaptable through the fastidious changes of the present era. Communities and lifestyles formulate the people dimension, followed by spatial structure and legibility as places. Networks encompass connectivity and accessibility, whilst activities encompass occupations, interactions, and engagements. Finally, territoriality can be defined as utilising space to communicate ownership and convey a sense of personal space and comfort zones in existing communities. With a focus on guidelines, the outcome of this research informs both policies and practices. With the help of user perception surveys and extensive visual observations, this research establishes ways and means to sustain and enhance the existing cultural and socio-spatial relationships in the urban fabric.

Abandoned railways allow an interpretation of urban borders by considering different scales of connection and separation. The former railway line in Aberdeen is used as a case study to explore how urban linear connections represent a defining linear space and may postulate a socio-spatial statement. The linearity of abandoned railways as an urban design issue is recognised as a characteristic of urban isolation and connection. The contemporary city is no longer a compact and homogeneous entity; its fragmentation and diversity make it prone to rapid transformation. The fragmentation represented by urban voids results from rapid urbanisation and new modes of transportation. Urban infrastructures, particularly railways, often necessitate redesign and are subject to relocation due to urban conditions. This relocation results in abandoned lines and, later, linear voids representing new micro-borders within a city. Focussing on an urban void and a residual form of a spatial condition that resulted from an abandoned railway line in Aberdeen, its potential role in connecting historically isolated and fragmented neighbourhoods are considered through three case studies of the successful transformation of abandoned railways. These are analysed to highlight the potential to develop a methodological approach to conscious urban reuse by addressing the challenges of planning and structuring specific design methods to create a network of connections and reinforce the importance of reactivating surrounding areas and places.

Within the contemporary geopolitical condition, there have been calls for alternative imaginaries and realities of the notion of the border. The practice of border-fictioning—creating alternate border imaginaries—provides a way to explore the notion of borders otherwise. The Eile Project, located in the Irish borderlands, uses border-fictioning to enact ecosophical urbanism and resist dominant sovereign forms of territoriality.

The border between North and South Korea has been a source of considerable uncertainty and volatility since the end of the Korean War during 1950–53. Since then, many conflicts and tensions could have led to a full-scale war on the peninsula. ‘The Korean Armistice Agreement’ of 1953 created the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) to minimise direct clashes between the two parties. However, despite its name, the DMZ is the most heavily militarised border globally. This area, designated as the DMZ, is a strip of land crossing the whole Korean Peninsula along the 38th parallel north. It is a narrow line, 250 km long and approximately 4 km wide, serving as a buffer between two countries. In reality, the border’s infrastructure is much more extensive than its official area describes—the stalemate between the two parties preconditions any architectural and urban development on the peninsula. The Joint Security Area (JSA) is in the middle of the DMZ, about 800 m wide and roughly circular. The Military Demarcation Line (MDL) bisects South and North Korea. The JSA is a symbol of what has been happening on the peninsula. This paper contends that the border between North and South Korea has remained volatile and unpredictable despite the physical separation of the two parties in late 1976 after a deadly incident in the JSA. The segregation of opposing forces in a particular special area reduced the minor clashes resulting from daily in-person contact. However, this was only a half measure. Peace in the area will be possible only by ending the direct military confrontation between the two parties.

Humanitarian programmes that offer support and aid to disenfranchised and displaced populations often focus on transient minorities in a state of hyper-vulnerability. Constant relocation of these groups from unsafe environments resulting from humanitarian crises or housing instability leaves a disproportionate segment of this population with inadequate housing or temporary shelter. Despite the best efforts of relief organisations, some disenfranchised and displaced groups view humanitarian outreach as a last resort and opt to meet their needs independently. Too often, these minorities are cast in a pitiable light and regarded as separate from the macro-societies they are part of. In this way, the border that defines these groups result from a state of being rather than a drawn boundary. How marginalised minority populations reject the larger society and sustain themselves outside conventional economic sectors is a subject of long-standing interest. This interest draws upon volunteer experience with habitat for humanity between 2005 and 2009 and first-hand accounts and statistical data of outreach to groups seeking asylum. These efforts are part of an ongoing examination of undercaste micro-communities in Lebanon and the US that are shunned within greater macro-societies.

Urban and social contexts are directly and indirectly affected by borders. This concept is exemplified by the twin cities of Frankfurt (Oder)and Słubice, located on the border between Germany and Poland along the Oder River. Both cities reflect their unique history of connections, divisions, and, today, reunification. On the one hand, their border still represents the division between a wealthy economy and another less flourishing; on the other hand, it means the gate towards a new economic exchange among Berlin, Frankfurt and other Polish cities that needs to be extended. Taking on this new challenge will require an increase in investments to upgrade their inadequate structures, improve infrastructure connections, and develop new urban plans for public spaces, schools, and affordable housing. The purpose of this first investigation is to gain a better understanding of how borders can affect cities on a variety of levels, as well as to identify a few principles for more effective urban governance that will redefine the roles of public assets and shared spaces within a society of multiple identities, including in this case the river as a symbol of a new ecological perspective.

Located in a strategic geopolitical location on the north coast of Africa, the enclave of Ceuta is a highly researched border settlement. This is primarily due to its specificity and the unique tangible border between the European Union (EU) and Africa. As a Spanish city, it is part of the UE; however, it is located on the African continent, and does not have a land connection with Europe. What is less studied is its development as an urban environment, which is necessary to understand the evolution of Ceuta concerning the border. Much of its uniqueness is due to the Kingdom of Morocco’s decision not to recognise the eight-kilometre-long border and the lack of urban development and density on the Moroccan side of the border. The border and its six-metre-high barbed wire fence have created a situation where the movement of people and goods has forced the economy to adapt to written and unwritten laws. As a result, the border can be considered a permeable membrane for informal movements and economic activities. At the same time, it serves as a strong barrier that limits the undesired flows originating from south–north migrations. Due to the shortage of land for growth and development within Ceuta, the lack of development on the Moroccan side could be considered an opportunity to resolve social and spatial injustices. To improve community conditions and territorial continuity, centripetal strategies are necessary to densify and enhance the built environment. These must be taken at the locally, where answers to social and community problems are found.

Borders provide the opportunity to be junctures of unification rather than barriers of separation. As the meeting place of languages, cultures, and cuisines, the possibilities for positive development are left somewhat open-ended. As they stand today, borders are often desolate expanses of landscape. In contrast, much research has been focused on borders as they exist and suggestions for making them active, an undiscovered typology that remains heavily focused on is a program. Through its infinite methods of application, the program is a way to draw people in, engage with them, and, consequently, activate a once undesirable space. Making borders a destination—a cultural hub combining language, art, music, and food—rather than a threshold to cross over will create an atmosphere that encourages cooperation by providing spatial and placemaking value. Creating a sense of community in this neutral zone will help places foster a tertiary space that is neither here nor there but a perfectly balanced tie. Using the Blue Neutralized Zone as an example, designer Soyoun Kim proposed spaces with specified programs to encourage positive relationships. In this study of one of the most famous borders, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea is given a friendlier appearance through the simple application of spaces. This creates a more engaging environment for inhabitants of opposite sides to foster connections. Considering the US–Mexico and West Bank borders furthers the theoretical debate about ways to redefine borders.

Working within the context of ‘post-Conflict’ Northern Ireland Shirlow (2006), the question of whether repressive constraints relating to conflict exist within the design of civic regeneration projects provides a critical base for analysing and understanding if and how they might manifest within the built environment. Immaterial repressive methods and material elements or signals within the built environment that control, contain and corral these regeneration projects are explored through the analysis of the case-study project An Gaelaras, designed by O’Donnell+Tuomey. Three areas are explored; the representation of the project, the design of the threshold condition, and the post-occupancy use of the building. Through documented site visits, this paper investigates the infiltration of the ‘architecture of interface’ within the regeneration project An Gaelaras and the creation of new borders within the ‘post-Conflict’ environment of Northern Ireland.

In theory, the United States–Mexico border offers the opportunity to study a division between striated cultures. In reality, it symbolises a border, an amalgam of both cultures. It is within the interior of the United States that cultural conflicts and tension occur, resulting from divided communities. The city of McMinnville, Tennessee, the self-proclaimed tree nursery capital of the world, presents a unique opportunity to examine conflicts and tensions in communities divided by cultural, linguistic, and political boundaries. Since 1990, McMinnville’s Hispanic population has more than doubled. This has strained the interaction between white Americans and immigrants upon which the nurseries depend. Using McMinnville as a case study, architecture’s role in cultural understanding is examined. This research explores implementing an early learning centre for Hispanic and white children on a proposed tree nursery site by overlaying pedagogical methods, anthropological studies, and architectural typologies. At the intersection of both communities, space facilitates intergenerational and cross-cultural dialogue.

Halayeb–Shalateen is a triangular region in southeast Egypt that borders Sudan. The region falls under Egyptian administration and sovereignty; however, Sudan claims the region. The territorial dispute impacted British colonization that reshaped the relationship between Egypt and Sudan during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Egypt has made several attempts to enforce its sovereignty over the border region with regional urban development. Such development sought to increase the population and transform the region from an underpopulated and underdeveloped region to a moderately populated developing area. However, various external factors and regional challenges have complicated development approaches and compromised outcomes. Analysis of the region’s background, context, and development plans provide insights into methods that will determine the success of future efforts to develop the Halayeb–Shalateen region.

The narratives of space, place and identity provide a basis to analyse the meanings of borders for Cypriots living in the north and south of the island. The historical background of the conflict in Cyprus introduces mixed villages and traces the importance of walls and borders in the urban fabric of Nicosia, Europe's last divided capital. We analysed narratives of crossing borders when they were opened every day, crossing on Ledra Palace/Lokmacı Street in Nicosia after three decades of closure. Opening this path would transform the dynamics of deep-rooted ethnic divisions and foreground shared cultures that draw on Nancy’s concept of inoperative community (Nancy 1991) and Agamben’s Coming Community (Agamben 1993). Analysis of two examples against the background of de Certeaus’ concepts of everyday life (de Certeau 1984) informs this urban epistemology: Home for Cooperation and a learning centre/café. These two spaces are neutral in the buffer zone/borderland for unified collectivity and “Occupy Buffer Zone Movement” activities, occupying a non-place and transforming into a public square through grassroots activism. Cypriot history is complex and eclectic. It requires anti-essentialist acceptance of its multiple origins to imagine the future of urban territories in Cyprus. The communities of the temporal civic grassroots are particularly intriguing to challenge the top-down urbanism models and understanding of community and being in common. They produce and re-appropriate public space through collective participation, alter the spatial perception, approach the borders, and redefine urban space.

Swaledale, an area of the Yorkshire Dales, is renowned for its ancient dry-stone wall agglomerations and prosperous mining history. However, neither its landscape nor its history, prima facie, have any relevance within today’s society other than tourism. Traversing the path the miners took from Gunnerside to The Old Gang Mine raises the question of whether the landscape can offer insight into past acts, present attitudes and future ambitions. This consideration is especially relevant concerning the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union and the significance of the decision for the future of agriculture in the UK. A journey of walking across the landscape to understand it is accompanied by analogue photography, which provides a form of self-immersion into the landscape. Digital technologies such as phones and GPS were not used to minimise distraction and increase reliance on intuition and memory.

The migration crisis has posed fundamental questions for European institutions. Among these are whether the reality of European Union (EU) human rights matches its rhetoric. The answer is a resounding no. The EU’s reaction to the crisis has entailed an abdication of responsibility, in part through adopting convenient new external borders. One response to this development has been a jurisdictional extension of human rights protection by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Thus, the EU’s response to the crisis contrasts with the attempts by the ECtHR to re-impose responsibility on European states.

Slums form boundaries of socially constructed temporal borderlands in twenty-first-century India. After the intense industrialisation that started in the 1960s, the perspective of architects and town planners changed. In addition, beginning in the last ten years of the twentieth century, government policies proved essential in improving India’s housing problem for an overpopulated country. Three specific slums provide an understanding of the different scales, the internal structures and the morphologies of the settlements: the slum of Anna Nagar, located next to the airport of Secunderabad; the slum of Wazirpur, situated in a large industrial area of Delhi; and the slum of Jijamata Nagar in Mumbai, whose location is less aggressive for the population. Graphical methods have been used to analyse the slum’s internal organisation and the construction of their houses. This demonstrates how the inhabitants of each slum area have made sociological transformations despite limited resources. Their housing is located in temporary borderlands and is subject to forced evacuation by the government.

Once isolated as a bordered neighbourhood, the Raploch Council housing estate in Stirling, Scotland, has been regenerated through a gentrification policy that encouraged increased owner-occupied housing in an area previously dominated by social housing. As a result, new norms and values were reflected in the visual environment and architecture by creating new buildings and moving new residents into the area. To investigate these issues, an auto-driven photo-elicitation method was used. Area residents, both established and new, were given single-use cameras and asked to take photos of the places and spaces that illustrated the changing nature of the Raploch. Guidance to the participants was limited to allow their perspectives to emerge and to reduce the researcher’s effect. Simultaneously, this method considered Foucauldian power relationships as the participants guided the discourse through their images. The interviews that followed focused on the participants’ photos. It became clear that social boundaries between established and new residents resulted in an “us and them” discourse. These social differences were reinforced by the physical barrier of a road between each group’s areas. In addition, the participants were acutely aware of another border—the different architectural styles of each area. Established residents considered the architectural style of the other group as out-of-place, and newer residents viewed the housing of the established residents as old with an underlying discourse of needing redevelopment by the new residents.

Economic development and accompanying urbanisation and social changes are occurring at an astounding pace in China. On the fringes of Suzhou and Jiangsu Province, these changes have created borders of differential growth patterns within the province that have had a significant social impact. For example, an urban housing redevelopment project was suddenly halted in one town close to Suzhou's industrialised area. Abrupt termination of the local authority’s development work resulted in the community’s division into three distinct areas—an edge town of Che Fang. Some residents whose homes had been demolished were given new houses. Others whose homes had been demolished were not offered replacement housing. At the same time, other residents who were scheduled to receive new and better housing were left isolated in their existing poor-quality homes. Interviews with a range of people living on the edge of this urban development provide insights into their experiences, their observations, and their thoughts about the future in the edge town condition of Che Fang.

Borders exist in various forms and strengths worldwide. They indicate the extent of a nation’s geographical territories and geopolitical controls. However, the notion and interpretation of borders are mostly viewed as an indicator of incompatibility and ideological differences in the socio-economic, political, and religious conditions on either side of a border. Borders are created in response to these economic, political, and social polarities and shaped by hard borders at one extreme and soft borders at the other, often appearing as ‘in between’ in a blurred delimitation. Characteristically, lines on a map, in reality, are the political or legal markers suggesting the historical struggle of power dominance with the propensities for expanding or shrinking the authority by border re-configuration. This power struggle originates from religious ideologies, ethnicity, economic strength, and other hosts of resource inequality. Borders customarily incite competition and influence trade relations and financial contests, leading to neighbouring nations’ growth or instability. In addition, they can be sources of conflict and discontentment, particularly in many parts of the world where conflicting political or religious views exacerbate disputes in land ownership and generate fragmented and temporal architectural formation at borderlands and affect life qualities. These typologies expose various spatial configurations, fragmented geospatial borderlands, polarisations of power and politics, disruptive trade relations, and spur vulnerability-induced (natural and artificial) migrations. The debate here is, can border issues be defined through architectural and urbanism discourse? This chapter exhibits a range of analyses on border typologies based on a series of pedagogical debates in Masters of Architecture discourse at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment, Robert Gordon University, in 2008. The exercise exemplifies the prospects of discussing border issues in the built environment discourse by examining numerous border phenomena. Unfortunately, the discussion of borders is seldom addressed in the design discipline. The exploration in this section attempted research on various relationships using the border as a metaphor for socio-economic and political tools. Examples are drawn from the Chinese trade to ethnicity, the information age, and liminal boundary. The views in these short studies postulate a prospect for further analysis. It also underscores the significance of the interface between border issues and the built environment.