Manufactured Sites: A Housing Urbanism Made of Waste/Maquiladora, project (Model, 2005)

Teddy Cruz is an American architect and urban theorist working across building design, photography, and critical writing. His practice centers on informal urbanism and the material cultures of border regions, particularly the US-Mexico boundary. Cruz examines how communities construct shelter and social space from reclaimed and salvaged materials, translating these observations into architectural interventions and pedagogical projects. His work operates between documentation and design, treating vernacular building practices as sources for rethinking density, sustainability, and collective habitation.