Borderless Studio

Firm name: Borderless Studio
Location: Chicago
Year founded: 2016
Firm leadership: Paola Aguirre Serrano (founder) and Dennis Milam, AIA
Education: Aguirre Serrano: B.Arch., Instituto Superior de Arquitectura y Diseño de Chihuahua; MAUD, Harvard Graduate School of Design; Milam: B.S., University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Experience: Aguirre Serrano: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), Place Lab at the University of Chicago, Utile Architecture and Planning, Instituto Municipal de Planeación de Chihuahua, E+B Arquitectura; Milam: SOM, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Tom Wiscombe Architecture. Aguirre currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
How founders met: In Chicago, on the 10th floor of the Santa Fe Building overlooking Lake Michigan
Firm size: Two to four

Courtesy Borderless Studio Challenged to redesign a 2-acre park in the Morningside neighborhood of Detroit for a national design competition, Borderless collaborated with Sarah Hayosh, director of land use and sustainability at nonprofit Detroit Future City, to propose an undulating layout with durable hardscaping.

Mission:
Borderless is an urban design and research studio focused on cultivating collaborative design agency through interdisciplinary projects. Our projects explore city design interventions and engage the complexity of urban systems and social equity by looking at the intersections of architecture, urbanism, landscape, planning, and civic participatory processes.

Favorite project:
Creative Grounds at Anthony Overton Elementary School on the South Side of Chicago was our first self-initiated project. Starting as a research initiative addressing the closure of 50 public schools in Chicago in 2013, the project evolved into a multiyear platform for community-led activation projects using art, design, and architecture as tools for inclusion and equitable repurposing.

Ben Kolak, Courtesy Borderless Studio As part of the Creative Grounds project, this map of Chicago is painted in the parking lot of the former Anthony Overton Elementary School, highlighting school closures by neighborhood.

Second favorite project:
The Buena Vida Choice Neighborhood Plan in Brownsville, Texas, was Borderless's first project contract. We were invited to collaborate with Camiros in this two-year planning process, a timeframe that allowed for cultivating a strong relationship with this border region community and for collaboratively reimagining the future of their homes in the context of downtown Brownsville. This community was so enthusiastic and invested in this project—they had never been part of a planning process before—and we had a great opportunity to collaborate with the Housing Authority of the City of Bronzeville, and multiple local partners involved in community development and design, such as Community Development Corporation of Brownsville and local nonprofit Building Community Workshop.

Origin of firm name:
Borderless is a mindset. We believe in the power of collaborative and interdisciplinary design work. We meet within “the spaces in between.”

Aguirre Serrano: I thought about Borderless as a title for a small exhibition during graduate school. I’m also originally from Chihuahua City, Mexico, which is on the U.S.–Mexico border. Borderless reflected this aspiration for challenging boundaries, conventions, paradigms, narratives, and silos across scales, geographies, and cultures.

Love Letter to the Crump takes the form of a large-scale curtain affixed to the exterior of Crump Theatre in Columbus, Ohio. Borderless translated love letters to the closed 130-year-old theater, written by participants over two workshops, into abstract graphics that decorate the curtain. — Hadley Fruits, Courtesy Exhibit Columbus *Love Letter to the Crump* takes the form of a large-scale curtain affixed to the exterior of Crump Theatre in Columbus, Ohio. Borderless translated love letters to the closed 130-year-old theater, written by participants over two workshops, into abstract graphics that decorate the curtain.

Hadley Fruits, Courtesy Exhibit Columbus

Architecture hero:
Aguirre Serrano: Lina Bo Bardi’s work has always fascinated me. I find her distinct and explorative architectural language and commitment to public space highly inspirational. She was also an immigrant who had an enormous impact in the built environment and social life of São Paulo, in addition to being one of the few women recognized globally in the Modernist movement.

Biggest career leap:
Aguirre Serrano: Working for a government agency in my hometown as a young architect. In many ways, that experience influenced my career and passion for public and community service.

Greatest mentor:
Milam: Joseph Legat, AIA, of Chicago-based Legat Architects

Advice for your younger self:
Have more fun, take more risks

Courtesy Borderless Studio In a master plan proposal for northeast Kansas City, Kan., Borderless and Chicago-based planning consultancy Camiros called for numerous amenities.

Best advice you have ever received:
Trust your instincts

Special item in your studio space:
Hot wire cutter. More for stress therapy than model making.

Design tool of choice:
Card stock

A tool you would love to invent:
Ctrl-Z for card stock

Steven Vance, Courtesy Borderless Studio An evolution of Borderless Studio’s Overton Elementary map project, Bronzeville (+) is part of the 2019 Chicago Biennial displaying a map of the neighborhood’s “formal and informal assets,” according to the firm.

The best criticism you’ve ever received:
“How is that architecture?” It was the perfect excuse to engage in a conversation about the value of the design process rather than an outcome.

Favorite place to get inspired:
The Chicago lakefront—20-plus miles of continuous public space for everyone’s enjoyment. It is a natural resource, yet it was the public’s decision to leave the lakefront “forever open, clear, and free.”

Dream collaborator:
Aguirre Serrano: late skyscraper designer Bertrand Goldberg; Milam: late American-French Modernist Paul Nelson