On the campaign trail, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has threatened to build a wall along the Mexico-US border to keep Mexican immigrants (or “bad hombres” as he calls them) out.
But what would Trump’s proposed wall look like in reality?
Mexican architects from Estudio 3.14, a Guadalajara-based design firm, imagined a hot pink border that stretches 1,954 miles long, called the “Prison-Wall.”
The renderings are meant to show the impracticality of building the wall, designer Norberto Miranda tells Business Insider. He says the border likely wouldn’t foster positive relations with Mexico, and the country’s rolling mountain ranges would make construction difficult.
As many others have pointed out, the wall would also be expensive, and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said his country will never pay for it. CNBC’s Kate Drew said the construction would cost the US government $15 billion to $25 billion. Plus, maintenance and hiring 21,000 agents as border patrol would cost an additional $2.1 billion per year, according to an analysis by Politico. Estudio 3.14 designed the renderings around these estimates.
Here's what Trump's wall could look like.
The designers imagined a pink wall, since Trump has repeatedly said it should be "beautiful."
The design was also inspired by the work of renowned Mexican architect Luis Barragán, who is famous for his blunt, stucco walls and use of bright colors.
Stretching from the Pacific Coast to the Gulf of Mexico, the border would separate the southwest US from northern Mexico.
The wall would include a prison for immigrants, holding up to "11 million people who Trump plans to deport," Miranda says.
Another part would feature a manufacturing plant, where the prisoners would work to maintain the wall.
According to the design, Americans would enjoy a shopping mall that's built into the wall too.
The mountain ranges along the Mexico-US border would make the wall's construction nearly impossible and more costly, Miranda says. The areas without existing fences are the most dense and arid; so taking those physical challenges into consideration, it would take 16 years to build.
The proposed divider is a "megalomaniac architectural proposal," he says.
