MARIE SALDAÑA
I explore the borderlands of history, data, and design.
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FRONTIER NATURALISM
Spring 2024
School of Interior Architecture
College of Architecture & Design
University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Humans draw and defend national borders, but birds migrate freely among seasonal homelands. This studio investigated how human-wildlife entanglements can provide a new perspective on notions of home, habitat, and identity. The design project imagined the adaptive reuse of a historic pumphouse in Mission, TX, near the South Texas border with Mexico as an addition to the 9 existing locations of the World Birding Center in the Rio Grande Valley, a major bird migration corridor. The mixed-use program included a public birding center and herbarium with lodging for visiting scientists, plus an observation pavilion.
After reseraching the site, the second-year Interior Architecture students began their design process with a series of studies, building mobiles from paper, wire and found objects inspired by the idea of a “deconstructed bird”. They explored ephemeral effects of environment on these objects, photographing the mobiles as they interacted with wind, light, and shadow. They then made a series of graphic studies based on these photographs that they incorporated into their design for the birding center.