Thank you for joining us at Bread & Salt for the region’s 50th PechaKucha Night filled with creativity and forward-thinking ideas!
Bruce Appleyard kicked off the fast-paced presentations by revisiting the visionary “Temporary Paradise?”—a 1974 proposal that imagined San DiegoTijuana as a ‘zone of confluence,’ where economy, environment, and culture come together for a more sustainable and equitable future.
Our lineup of brilliant speakers—from Patrick Cordell’s unified architecture vision to Hugo Crosthwaite’s artistic foretellings for Tijuana’s future—pushed us to rethink borders and barriers, while Leslie Lewis and Jamex de la Torre shared bold perspectives on housing and the region’s complex border dynamics. Each presentation underscored the potential for our region to grow through collaboration, inclusivity, and innovation while some highlighted the danger in not planning for a sustainable future.
Bruce Appleyard – Temporary Paradise? @ 50 and Beyond
Patrick Cordell – Beyond Barriers: Architecture for a Unified Future
Hugo Crosthwaite – Tijuana Radiant Shine: An artist’s futurist dream for the city of Tijuana
Carmen Cuenca & Michael Krichman – Considering Issues in the Border Region through the Lens of Critical Art Practices
Jamex de la Torre – Border Entanglement Theory
Leslie Lewis – Vision for a Just, Inclusive, Biophilic, Regenerative Housing Future
Dr. LaWana Richmond – There are Black People in the Future
Maxine Ward – Roaming the Borderlands – the Arbitrary Lines of a Region
Special thanks to the San Diego Architecture Foundation, for stewarding PechaKucha Night for the last 16 years and to Ramel Wallace, Astrid Klein, and Mark Dytham for emceeing the event, and a big shout out to Barracruda and Mujeres Brewing for fueling the fun!
Most importantly, thank you to all who attended and supported the event. Together, we’re shaping a brighter, more connected future for San Diego Tijuana. Let’s continue working toward this vision!
Pecha Kucha Night, Vision 2074, happened to be the 50th PechaKucha Night, was hosted in our region and coincided with the 50th anniversary of Temporary Paradise?
“Temporary Paradise?” was a pioneering plan that advocated for the San Diego Tijuana border region to become a “zone of confluence” that shares its economy, environment, and cultures. It advocated a future marked by sustainability, livability, and equity and is considered the preeminent planning tome written about our region in 1974.
With collaborators at San Diego State University and the San Diego Architecture Foundation, we have put out a call to envision how we can plan for the next 50 years, using “Temporary Paradise?” as inspiration. Their ideas will help populate the PKN.
The theme for this PKN was “50 Years Forward: Ambitious ideas to reshape our future“.
