Mexican Architects Oblige Trump, Design Massive, Hot Pink Border Wall

One of Donald Trump’s most controversial campaign proposals is to build a gigantic wall along the US’s southern border to keep out the “bad hombres” from Mexico– and make Mexicans pay for it. The plan has been widely condemned as impractical and is estimated to cost the US up to $25 billion to construct and $2.1 billion per year to maintain. It’s also been denounced as unethical, even drawing thinly veiled criticism from Pope Francis, who warned against the “false security of physical or social walls.”

If Mexicans are to pay for the wall, it’s only fair that they have some input into its design. A group of Mexican architects from Guadalajara-based firm, Estudio 3.14, have taken it upon themselves to oblige the Republican presidential candidate and design the border wall, dubbed the “Prison Wall”. They’ve even rendered it in hot pink, in keeping with Trump’s wish that it be “beautiful”.

The tongue-in-cheek project is fittingly a celebration of Mexico’s rich architectural tradition. The 1,954 mile-long barrier has been colored pink in homage to Pritzker Prize-winning Mexican architect Luis Barragán who, among other things, earned global prominence for his use of startling colors to complement his simple and unadorned stucco designs.

The imagined ‘Prison Wall’ stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Coast, bisecting rivers, hills, and border towns in the process. As its name suggests, it also incorporates a massive detention facility that is capable of holding the “11 million people who Trump plans to deport,” according to Norberto Miranda, a representative of Estudio 3.14. It also includes space for a shopping mall and an observation deck for Americans to peer down across the border.

The result is awe-inspiring, flamboyant, and sinister, precisely because it is meant to remind the public of the “gorgeous perversity” of Trump’s vision, Miranda explains, adding that it “also takes advantage of the tradition in architecture of megalomaniac wall building.”