2024-11-23T22:00:47-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/149953487/architecture-and-the-wall-teddy-cruz-and-fonna-forman-on-the-us-mexico-border Nicholas Korody 2016-06-23T12:45:00-04:00 >2016-06-30T20:36:05-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/dl/dl973v3erywh1hl1.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>..We must expose rather than mask the institutional mechanisms driving uneven urban development. Such a revelation requires a corresponding expansion of our understanding of the scope of architecture itself&mdash;can we design human rights, for example? Can social justice become an architectural protocol? In other words, the most important materials with which architects must learn to work are not steel and concrete but critical knowledge of the underlying conditions that produce today&rsquo;s urban crises.</p></em><br /><br /><p>The article makes reference to the controversy generated a few months ago over a competition to design Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposed border wall between the US and Mexico. The editors of Bustler, Archinect's sister site, decided not to host the competition due to potential conflicts with our ethical standards, writing, "We are conflicted about the nature of the competition and fear that it promotes xenophobia. The competition goes against the ethical standards we strive to align ourselves with.&rdquo;</p><p>For more on the competition, check out the editorial on <a href="http://bustler.net/news/4754/us-mexico-border-wall-competition-provokes-controversy" target="_blank">Bustler.</a></p>