Today, around 700 miles of steel barriers and fences with barbed wire cover the 1,900-mile-long, US-Mexico border. By 2020, Donald Trump hopes to build a new structure there that would become a hallmark of his presidency: a "big, beautiful wall."
The US Department of Homeland Security put out an official call for wall designs earlier this year. And last week, it selected four construction companies to design 30-foot tall prototypes in San Diego, California.
It's uncertain exactly what the wall would look like, or even if the Trump administration can figure out how to pay for it. But the wall's purpose would be clear: in Trump's words, it would keep "bad hombres" out.
Trump's wall would also serve as a symbol of security and a way to further quarantine the US from Mexico, says Ronald Rael, an architecture professor at University of California, Berkeley who has studied the US southern border for over a decade.
In his new book, "Borderwall as Architecture," published by University of California Press this spring, he proposes alternative designs — not rooted in militarization — for the borderlands. The designs are influenced by how people have interacted there, ranging from friendly volleyball games to the exchange of burritos.
"It's about all the ways the wall has brought people together in really interesting ways as an act of resistance. And how those are designed scenarios," Rael told Business Insider. "They're events that took place because of the wall, and they change the space around that area. That's why I think it's important to smuggle design into the border lines, because they are in need of investment — not in the border wall, but investment in terms of social infrastructure: parks, schools, clean water, clean energy."
With "Borderwall," Rael explores how architects can encourage social and economic development on both sides of the wall. Below are a few of his designs.
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The burrito wall
Food exchanges along the US-Mexico border inspired Rael's design for the "burrito wall," which calls for a see-through barrier with built-in food carts, grills, and seating for both sides. People would be able to buy, serve, and eat regional culinary favorites, like burritos and tacos.
He told BI that it's not unusual for people to casually buy and sell food along the border, even in surveilled areas, today.
"Casual exchanges are common across the border wall, ranging from small talk, long visits with family and friends, and commercial transactions of items ranging from food and jewelry to contraband," Rael wrote. " Even Border Patrol agents occasionally participate in this commerce, illegality notwithstanding."
The cactus wall
From 2004 to 2006, the Department of Homeland Security erected 30 miles of steel fencing through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a protected wilderness area that contained cactus species native to Arizona's southern border. As a result, a number of plants were lost from the construction as well as the increased movement of Border Patrol trucks, Rael said.
He proposes restoring the cacti by re-planting thousands of them along the border.
The library wall
This design calls for a binational library on the US-Mexico border, where people on both sides could read and rent books. The Haskell Free Library and Opera House, built on the US-Canada border in 1904, inspired it.
"The borderwall could be transformed into a border-bookshelf, encouraging dialogue and cultural exchange through the wall itself," Rael wrote.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider