Architecture and urbanism of simulation at Tijuana

Abstract

Nowadays, in the architectural solution of reality prevails the tendency to portray it using images, and thus as sham architecture. In order to show this tendency I present an interpretation of a conventional building representative of Tijuana’s landscape: a motel. The tour of the site gives an account of the construction details of a social assumption in the manner of spectacle where actors share the assumptions of representation. The case is a just a sample of the urban fabric border that offers tourists and visitors in general recurrent objects of "Mexican" aspects  encapsulated on request. This representation obeys also to the generic classification and Manichean of spaces of good and evil, which have parallel in the twin cities located north and south of the international border [Tijuana & San Diego]. The paper finalizes with the recent version of the formula that seeks to devote the “good” spaces: the gated communities.