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Rethinking the U.S./Mexico border fence, with bike paths and burrito stands

April 5, 2011

Ron Rael, assistant professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, is not a fan of the 700-mile series of separation barriers that have been erected between the United States and Mexico. He says the wall is expensive, detrimental to the environment, ineffective, and even deadly, since hundreds die of dehydration each year as they try to cross the culture.

To that end, he has re-envisioned the wall as something like a town center, complete with infrastructure, social services, and recreational facilities. Among the stations he envisions along the wall are a volleyball court, a confessional, a lending library, a water catchment system, a wastewater treatment plant, a solar farm, and even a “burrito wall,” which involves a food cart inserted into the wall.

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Source: Fast Company

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