SAN DIEGO – A bright orange, temporary pavilion in Balboa Park is meant to celebrate and expand ties between San Diego and Tijuana turns the border walls that separate the communities into a symbol that unites them.
Principal
Heleo Architecture and Design
Created by the binational architectural and design firm of Heleo, based in East Village, and Tijuana visual artist Daniel Ruanova, the $300,000 EXCHANGE Pavilion symbolically takes two border walls and a no man’s land between them and folds them together to create a single 3,554-square-foot structure standing 16 feet tall as a way of showing that the two cities unite to form an interdependent region.
Ringing the edge of the modular steel and corrugated metal pavilion, is a constantly scrolling, LED lighted ticker-tape video display of poetry in multiple languages.
The open-air pavilion is made from 93% recyclable steel. Seating blocks inside the pavilion are made from ByBlocks, a product of ByFusion Global, made of construction-grade material manufactured with repurposed plastic.
The block structures are about the size of a school desk and can be assembled in a variety of configurations for seating.
Principal
Heleo Architecture and Design
“In developing the vision for the pavilion, we really wanted to put something out that would be iconic and really be a beacon for our city,” said Carlos Hernandez, a principal of Heleo with his wife, Barbara Leon.
The name of their firm is an abbreviated combination of their last names.
Stronger Together
The two sides of the pavilion come together at the top, forming a pattern that resembles the letter X when seen from above, symbolizing the exchange of everything from cultural performances and art to food and manufactured goods between San Diego and Tijuana.
“It’s no longer a divider, it’s a unifier,” Leon said.
Ideally, Hernandez said that the pavilion will draw attention to the resources and economic connections that bring the two cities together.
“We’re stronger together. We’re more dynamic.”
Jonathan Glus, the City of San Diego’s executive director for arts and culture, said that the pavilion design “essentially upends the border wall” to make it “a place where people come together to look to a future that really reflects the way that our binational region already functions.”
“We know that commerce and trade and education and culture are all interconnected in our region and happen on a daily basis,” Glus said.
In keeping with the symbolism that the pavilion embodies, the panels and tubing used to make it were manufactured in Tijuana and trucked across to border, to be assembled in Balboa Park.
In a way, Hernandez is a product of the cross-border connections between San Diego and Tijuana.
He grew up in Tijuana, crossing the border to go to elementary school and high school in San Diego.
The pavilion is a project of the World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024, a year-long initiative to showcase best practices in design-led policy and innovation, increase civic engagement, and attract businesses and tourism.
Executive Director for Arts and Culture
City of San Diego
The initiative “is really designed to advance the power of design in making communities better, and that includes design in climate justice, design in infrastructure, physical structure, design in products, design in the innovation sector, so it’s really a broad definition of design,” Glus said. “Every day of the year, we’re highlighting and celebrating design in our binational region.”
Over the next year, the pavilion will be used partly for exhibits, screenings and various events staged through the World Design Capital.
At other times, it’s meant to function as a simple gathering space where people can find shade and simply hang out, Hernandez said.
“It’s meant to be a place where people could go and exchange ideas, points of view,” Hernandez said.
Heleo Architecture and Design
FOUNDED: 2015
HEADQUARTERS: East Village, San Diego
PRINCIPALS: Carlos Hernandez and Barbara Leon
BUSINESS: architectural and design firm
EMPLOYEES: 7
WEBSITE: www.heleo.com
CONTACT: 619-393-6635
NOTABLE: Heleo has designed award-winning projects in California and the Southwestern U.S
