PAOLA AGUIRRE
founder, borderless studio
Pronouns: She/Ella
Paola is the founder of BORDERLESS, a Chicago-based collaborative urban design and research practice. Through BORDERLESS, Paola leverages her past experience leading collaborations with public, civic and private organizations in Mexico and the United States. Also an educator, Paola has taught at Archeworks, Sam Fox School of Design at Washington University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received a Master’s of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard School of Design.
Urban design
Founded in 2016, BORDERLESS is focused on cultivating collaborative design agency. With emphasis on exchange and communication across disciplines, BORDERLESS explores creative and collaborative city design interventions that address the complexity of urban systems and social equity by looking at intersections between architecture, urban design, infrastructure, landscape, planning and civic participatory processes.
Pandemic project
During the pandemic, City Open Workshop (co-founded by Paola and Elle Ramel) convened volunteer designers to create a resource guide that would help restaurants and chambers of commerce re-open dining establishments in adherence with COVID-19 safety protocols. The group created a web-based FAQ and infographics explaining tent set-up, sidewalk cafe permitting and parklets. Download the guides in English and Spanish from the project page.
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