A professor came up with a proposal for Trump's border wall that's actually a line of burrito food carts

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A professor came up with a proposal for Trump's border wall that's actually a line of burrito food carts

Rael_Fig_34_18Fogwall (2)

Copyright Rael San Fratello; used with permission by University of California Press

From Ronald Rael's "Border as Architecture" (2017).

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."

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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.

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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.

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"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.