Gorgeous Perversity
The intern program at Estudio 3.14—a design firm based in Guadalajara, México— in collaboration with prof. Hassanaly Ladha, University of Connecticut, has developed a wall along the Mexican-American border including architectural renderings of the structure in various border landscapes (hills, desert, a border crossing over a river, and in urban Tijuana), floor plans, iconography, and an infographic, as well as symbolic use of the wall on the American currency.
Because the wall has to be beautiful, it has been inspired in by Luis Barragán's pink walls that are emblematic of Mexico. It also takes advantage of the tradition in architecture of megalomaniac wall building. Moreover, the wall is not only a wall—as you can see in the hill landscape cross-section: it is a prison where 11 million undocumented people will be processed, classified, indoctrinated, and/or deported.
Our interest is threefold: first, in the immediate term, we believe that this project will allow the general public to literally imagine the gorgeous monstrosity proposed my Mr.Trump. Second, it takes the opportunity of having an architectural object at the core of a national debate, allowing us to test the potential—or limit—of architectural images in mass and social media. Third, it addresses the operation through which language, as the instrument of thought, delineates referents in space and time.
We hope that these visuals will allow the public to imagine the policy proposal in all of its gorgeous perversity.
