The urban research projects of Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman made the Tijuana-San Diego border region a global laboratory for engaging the central challenges of urbanization. The projects engage urban and political confl ict as a creative tool, and demonstrate the capacity of architecture and design to confront exclusion and homogenization in the city, and propose alternative strategies for more inclusive urban development.

By the People: Designing a Better America--the third volume in Cooper Hewitt's series on socially responsible design, which began with Design for the Other 90%--examines how design is effectively challenging poverty and social inequality across America. The book explores current social, economic and environmental issues in America with a particular focus on marginalized and underserved communities. By the People features design projects organized into six working themes: Act, Save, Share, Live, Learn and Make. It is a true manual--in format and content--featuring design solutions that expand access to education, food, health care and affordable housing; increase social and economic inclusion; offer improved alternative transportation options, and provide a balanced approach to land use between the built and natural environments. Cooper Hewitt Curator Cynthia E. Smith traveled to post-industrial cities, urban areas impacted by natural disasters, sprawling cities, places of persistent poverty and major metropolitan regions. Her research yielded nearly 400 potential projects from over 30 states and three indigenous nations (Navajo, Lakota, Pueblo). Smith met with local designers, community members and organizations. Her research was guided by the following questions: where does poverty exist? Why are poverty numbers increasing? What populations and communities are most affected? Who are the individuals, organizations and networks that are creating innovative and systemic approaches through design? What are the local, regional and scalable design solutions? In addition to the highly illustrated project profiles, By the People contains essays by, and interviews with, those designers and architects building the innovative and systemic approaches being developed through design.

Borderwall as Architecture is an artistic and intellectual hand grenade of a book, and a timely re-examination of what the physical barrier that divides the United States of America from the United Mexican States is and could be. It is both a protest against the wall and a projection about its future. Through a series of propositions suggesting that the nearly seven hundred miles of wall is an opportunity for economic and social development along the border that encourages its conceptual and physical dismantling, the book takes readers on a journey along a wall that cuts through a "third nation"-the Divided States of America. On the way the transformative effects of the wall on people, animals, and the natural and built landscape are exposed and interrogated through the story of people who, on both sides of the border, transform the wall, challenging its existence in remarkably creative ways. Coupled with these real-life accounts are counterproposals for the wall, created by Rael's studio, that reimagine, hyperbolize, or question the wall and its construction, cost, performance, and meaning. Rael proposes that despite the intended use of the wall, which is to keep people out and away, the wall is instead an attractor, engaging both sides in a common dialogue. Included is a collection of reflections on the wall and its consequences by leading experts Michael Dear, Norma Iglesias-Prieto, Marcello Di Cintio, and Teddy Cruz.