11 René Peralta, The Border / Tijuana
A conversation with architecture professor René Peralta, About Tijuana / San Diego border presence, daily life, and design. Border astronaut, his latest work.
Join Eduardo Guerrero, urban designer based in Tucson, as he talks with urban idealists and designers about their work and stories. Listen in as he engages these relevant thinkers in reflections and conversations about the environment and culture.
11 René Peralta, The Border / Tijuana
Biography:
René Peralta studied architecture at the New School of Architecture in San Diego and the Architectural Association in London, England. He has been a professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA, Professor of Urban Design at the University of Washington in St. Louis and, from 2012-2014, was Director of the Master of Science in Architecture with an emphasis in Landscape + Urbanism at Woodbury University in San Diego. Previously, he served as the inaugural Herb Greene Teaching Fellow at the University of Oklahoma (2019-2021).
René’s work in recent years explores the contemporary and future forms of the urban border between the United States and Mexico, specifically between the cities of Tijuana and San Diego. René is a coauthor, with Fiamma Montezemolo and Heriberto Yépez, of the book Here is Tijuana, published in 2006 by Black Dog Publishing in London. In 2018, he co-edited, along with Tito Alegría and Roger Lewis, the commemorative edition of the book A Temporary Paradise: A look at the special landscape of the San Diego Region, originally prepared by Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard (COLEF 2018).
His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, Santa Monica Art Museum, Mexico House at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, DC, Shenzhen Architecture and Urbanism Biennial 2007 and the Central Society of Architects in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2015, his research on the Experimental Housing Project (PREVI) in Lima, Peru, was part of the exhibition “Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2017, he directed Hyperloop West, a group that went on to become a semi-finalist in the global challenge competition organized by Virgin Hyperloop One. In 2017, Rene curated the Tijuana-San Diego exhibit space at the 2017 Architecture and Urbanism Biennial in Seoul, Korea.
René is a member of the board of directors of Fundación Esperanza de México (FEM), a non-profit organization with more than 25 years of experience building communities and improving the quality of life of low-income residents of Tijuana through assisted self-built housing.
René is based in Tijuana and, in his spare time, is the conguero for the band “The Good Times” of Tijuana.
Education:
University of Oklahoma, USA
Architectural Association, London, England
New School of Architecture and Design, San Diego, USA
Workplace: The University of Oklahoma, Division of Architecture.
Current city: Norman, Oklahoma, USA / Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Websites of interest:
https://architecture.ou.edu/directory/peralta/https://architecture.ou.edu/directory/peralta/
https://www.generica.com.mx/Profile
Blog: Pensamientos Genericos http://generica.blog/
Twitter: @Rene_Peralta
Instagram: @rperalta
Publications:
Living Border: Replanteando la Geografía entre Tijuana y San Diego. Instituto Metropolitano de Planeación de Tijuana (IMPLAN)
Tijuana, México. Forthcoming: 2022
Metropolis in Motion: Towards a Sustainable Mobility Plan
Report of the mobility challenges in five cities in Latin America. Rene Peralta; Editor and Translator
https://www.metropolis.org/sites/default/files/resources/Metropolis-in-Motion.pdf
2019
Temporary Paradise, A Commemorative Reprint.
Rene Peralta, Tito Alegria, Roger Lewis, Co-Editors. COLEF, With selected essays by Bruce Appleyard, Michael Dear, Larry Herzog, Tito Alegria, Mike Stepner
2017. ISBN 978-607-479-274-4
Here is Tijuana
An infographic walkthrough of the City of Tijuana, with an overview of cultural life, social issues, and the urban environment. Co-authored with Fiamma Montezemolo, Heriberto Yepez, Black Dog Publishing. London, England. 192 pp. ISBN: 1 904772 45 5. March 2006
Aqui es Tijuana (Spanish Edition)
Black Dog Publishing, London England. 192pp. ISBN 1 904772 49 8, Spanish. May 2006
Audio visual:
Previ Lima Film, PREVI_ 45 Years after its conception,
included in “Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980” a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H9yQ5GdWvw
https://www.generica.com.mx/PREVI-Peru-MOMA-NY
Tijuana Border, Mexico 🇲🇽 - by drone [4K]
Key words:
US Border, Mexico Border, Tijuana, San Diego, urban design, migration, daily life, trans frontier, border astronaut
Episode production:
Soundscapes by Rene Peralta / Tijuana, Mexico / August 2022
sombraurbana.com
December ‘22
Book by Ernesto Mireles
Vistazos de la frontera (Spanish edition) Apr 28, 2023
https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Ernesto-Mireles/dp/B0C3WTZ6HM/
May 2023