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Can a Border Checkpoint be Beautiful?

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This cascading concrete checkpoint is as expressive as a sculpture.

The idea it expresses is its own function: to first form a barrier or fence, and then to grudgingly allow some to crawl through.

The Project Ninotsminda Custom Terminal, a bureaucratic structure, is like an abstract expressionist sculpture set down in the middle of the countryside.

The checkpoint appears to part not sideways like a door, but from under, as if a mouse is scurrying out from under a sofa.

I think that’s what imparts that ominous feeling of bureaucratic control.

The surprising border crossing comes from architect Luka Machablishvili and divides Georgia and Armenia in the former soviet bloc.

The rotation around the axis on the façade is clearer in this night rendering.

It will be over 100 metres wide, and will divide traffic from both directions into a total of eight lanes.

Stained glass panels fill the spaces between the concrete slabs.

What appears to be a full width of lanes is deceptive. Actually, there are two floors of staff facilities on each end of the building.