Ideas worth spreading

An architect's subversive reimagining of the US-Mexico border wall

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Ronald Rael |

TED Salon: Belonging

• December 2018

What is a border? It's a line on a map, a place where cultures mix and merge in beautiful, sometimes violent and occasionally ridiculous ways. And a border wall? An overly simplistic response to that complexity, says architect Ronald Rael. In a moving, visual talk, Rael reimagines the physical barrier that divides the United States and Mexico -- sharing satirical, serious works of art inspired by the borderlands and showing us the border we don't see in the news. "There are not two sides defined by a wall. This is one landscape, divided," Rael says.

What is a border? It's a line on a map, a place where cultures mix and merge in beautiful, sometimes violent and occasionally ridiculous ways. And a border wall? An overly simplistic response to that complexity, says architect Ronald Rael. In a moving, visual talk, Rael reimagines the physical barrier that divides the United States and Mexico -- sharing satirical, serious works of art inspired by the borderlands and showing us the border we don't see in the news. "There are not two sides defined by a wall. This is one landscape, divided," Rael says.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Ronald Rael

See speaker profile

Ronald Rael draws, builds, writes, 3D-prints and teaches about architecture as a cultural endeavor deeply influenced by a unique upbringing in a desolate alpine valley in southern Colorado.

Ronald Rael | University of California Press, 2017 | Book

Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the US-Mexico Boundary

Michael Dea | Oxford University Press, 2015 | Book

Why Walls Won't Work: Repairing the US-Mexico Divide

Michael is a colleague at Berkeley and his book makes a clear case for what the title argues: Walls Wont Work! The book includes a history of the wall and is enriched by first hand knowledge of the border from his travels along its entire length.

Francisco Cantú | Riverhead Books, 2019 | Book

The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border

It is important to listen and speak to both sides and this book uniquely takes one on a journey of the borderlands from the perspective of a border patrol agent. Each story makes us more aware of the physical and emotional hardships faced by those on each side of the divide.

| Listen

The Anta Project (Recordings)

Musician Glenn Weyant transforms the wall into an enormous instrument, drumming on it with "weapons of mass percussion" or playing it like a string instrument, sometimes performing alongside border patrol agents!

Marcello Di Cintio | Soft Skull Press, 2013 | Book

Walls: Travels Along Barricades

It's not only the US who is building walls — it's a global phenomenon. Marcello explains how walls are shaping peoples lives around the world from first-hand accounts during his travels.

Richard Misrach and Guillermo Galindo | Book

Border Cantos

My friends and Oakland neighbors, Richard and Guillermo, were working on this at the same time I was putting together Borderwall as Architecture. Amazing photographs and instruments made of and from the borderlands. Galindo’s sounds are haunting and moving.

Brent Hoff | Watch

Directed by Brent Hoff, this short film inspired me to believe that bringing people to the wall on both sides was important to building social infrastructure along the border.

Patricia Leigh Brown | New York Times, 2019 | Article

"The Lewis and Clark of the Digital Building Frontier"

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.