We live in a time when borders seem to be either crossed easily (by currencies, information, and disease) or almost impenetrable (for displaced persons and migrants). The establishment, reestablishment, reinforcement, violation, and control of borders are common factors underlying many of the most contentious contemporary issues, from Brexit and COVID-19 to the immigration policies of the European Union and the United States. Borders are sites of transience but also of construction, comprising checkpoints, temporary or quasi-permanent shelters, and fortified barriers, among other structures. Given the importance of borders currently and historically, it is essential that our discipline account for the architecture at and of borders. As Anoma Pieris, editor of Architecture on the Borderline, argues in her introduction, the question is “how a discipline and practice deeply invested in nation building might address the violence implicit in territoriality” (1).

The essays in this volume acknowledge this implicit violence, and...

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