In Borders: A Very Short Introduction, Hagan Diener writes, "…every border has a story. Every line on a map, every maker in the landscape, was derived from some complex negation of power and culture." It is this potency of meaning that makes the physical and conceptual border such a fascinating site. The 2013-2014 ACSA administered and AISC sponsored Steel Design Student Competition challenged students to design a border crossing station addressing the complex factors of cross-border relationships, using structural steel as the primary material. Learn more about the competition and the winning projects after the break.
The site, program requirements, scale, and contextual requirements were left open to the designer's determination, resulting in a wide range of diverse proposals. The large variety of cultural and geographical influences reflected the extremely flexible potential of steel as a building material. Placing a special emphasis on innovation in steel design, the competition encouraged highly creative submissions as evidenced by the winning designs, shown below.
