Esteban Chavez

An Earnest Welcome

A tremendous amount of resources and space are allocated to the detention of undocumented immigrants with the vast majority not having criminal backgrounds. This thesis aims to first explore and research detention centers and their economic and societal cost to set up an argument for mass amnesty in the United States. The existing system of detention is indefensible and beyond repair.  The thesis speculates on a future in which mass amnesty is offered to the non-criminal undocumented immigrants residing in the United States and what new civic building would be required to help facilitate this transition. 

A new civic building typology would be required to help facilitate the transition to citizenship of all these individuals as well as to help build trust between the formerly undocumented and their new government. The resources previously allocated to the building, maintaining, and detaining of undocumented immigrants would be reallocated to support, strengthen, and uplift communities and citizens of the United States. This new typology would house a diverse set of programs that all center around services that would be provided to help in the transition to citizenship. Programmatically, the new typology would focus on housing programs related to administrative and legal assistance, healthcare services, and educational and workforce training. The aim of the project is to be a one stop civic building were one visit could cover multiple programmatic functions. While the inside of the project focuses on services, the exterior focuses on welcomeness and outward education. The project aims to combat the existing dynamic of civic buildings that tend to showcase unrelenting strength, power, and order and instead create a sense of welcomeness, transparency, and be uplifting in its form. The most important formal move is the sinking of the building into the ground to alleviate power dynamics created by elevated buildings on plinths. The skin of the building consists partially of a digital screen meant to inform and educate citizens to destigmatize immigrants and immigration. The rest of the skin is a combination of translucent and transparent, helping provide required privacy, however, never attempting to hide what it contains or what awaits it’s occupants.