Archive: Border-Land-Scapes
Text by Liene Jakobsone
Published in 2026 by Ruby Press and edited by architect Liene Jakobsone, the book Border-Land-Scapes brings together a selection of essays which explore the architectural and spatial manifestations of defence, violence and segregation and their impact on landscapes and people. The book explores the role of architecture in times of conflict and considers how the discipline's spatial knowledge and sensibility might contribute to contemporary geopolitical challenges.
Below we present an extract from Jacobsone’s introductory essay entitled Beyond the pale: On borders, borderlands, and landscapes.
Liene Jakobsone is a founding director of Lativian architecture practice Sampling Architects, a project by whom has been added to our archive here.
LJ We are continuously surrounded by military infrastructure dating back centuries. Some of it is immediately recognisable as belonging to the military sphere - fortresses, bunkers - while other elements are far less apparent: ramparts and ditches that,over time, have come to resemble natural landscape features, or urban and territorial planning principles introduced in specifichistorical contexts but now absorbed into the fabric of cities and no longer perceived in military terms. However, whether or not these structures have ever served their intended purpose - and whether or not we recognise them as defense-related - they continue to define space and shape the identity of place.
In contemporary architectural practice, defense is rarely considered - whether in a military sense or in broader terms. Yetarchitecture is, at its core, an effort to protect oneself from various forms of threat and danger: from climate and weather, fromanimals or other people, and simply from intrusion in to one’s private space. In this sense, architecture is constantly engaged inthe delineation of boundaries - it is embedded in the very foundations of the practice.
Why, then, are architects - the professional producers of space - no longer engaged in the spatial articulation of military defense? There was a time when urban planning and architecture were considered integral to defense strategies; the two disciplines were closely intertwined. In recent decades, however - particularly after the Second World War - this connection has steadily weakened. Are we, as architects, no longer part of the debate? Or have we simply chosen not to participate? It appears that we have adopted an increasingly pacifist stance - perhaps even an evasive one. The very notion of designing in anticipation of war, or as a means of deterrence, seems to be treated asethically suspect, as though it were inherently impure or inhumane. It is at risk of being interpreted as designing for violence.
We live in a time when the legacy of military architecture is being adapted to new purposes - fortifications and castles have become museums or been repurposed for cultural or social uses. Infrastructure - roads, engineered waterways, airports, andothers - continues to serve contemporary civilian transport needs, while former city ramparts have often been converted into expansive public parks. Urban planning interventions that were originally conceived to facilitate the movement of large groupsof people, enable surveillance and control, or mitigate destruction in the event of attack, now define the distinctive character ofmany cities - no longer perceived, in our everyday experience, as connected to their military origins. At the same time, similarprocesses have always unfolded in the opposite direction: civilian architecture and infrastructure have, when necessary, beenappropriated for warfare and defense, while the ordinary fabric of the city - its basements, metrostations, tunnels and publicbuildings - has become a refuge for civilians during military crises.
In the context of recent geopolitical developments, however, the construction of new defensive infrastructure has resumed in various parts of Europe and elsewhere in the world - including the hundreds of kilometers of fencing straddling Europe’s eastern border and numerous military bases at strategic locations along frontiers, coastlines, and inland territories. This has prompted renewed conversation about the intersections of architecture and defense. Instead, it represents an attempt to reconsider - once again - the questions of defense and militarization within the context of architecture, from multiple perspectives, and to examine how contemporary developments differ from those of previous eras.
What is architecture’s role in contemporary defense strategies, and how might this role - now often un-acknowledged - bearticulated or reclaimed? In what ways can the architect’s perspective - the discipline’s specific knowledge, its spatialsensibility, its capacity to anticipate long-term transformations - contribute to navigating today’s geopolitical challenges? How do architects interpret the emergence of new military infrastructure and how is it perceived by the wider public and by those living in the regions directly affected? What future awaits these structures? How might their function and meaning change over time as they become part of the ordinary built environment? Ultimately, how will these new border-land-scapes look in the future?
NOTES
This text is an edited version of the introduction to the book Border-Land-Scapes, published by Ruby Press in 2026.
Many thanks to Liene Jacobsone for all her help in compiling this post and the accompanying book competition.
Visit Sampling Architects website here.
Posted 12th October 2026.