AWARD YEAR
2021
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions, Trust, Tolerance & Empathy, Refugees and Migrants
KEYWORDS
empathy, Children playing, borders, migrant crisis, Community Space
COUNTRY
United States of America
DESIGNED BY
studio Rael San Fratello
WEBSITE
https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/beazley-designs-of-the-year/transport/teeter-totter-wall
Teeter-Totter Wall
Pink seesaws break the barrier between the US and Mexico allowing people to interact over the border
A seesaw installation is bringing together children on the US-Mexico border in defiance of President Trump who wants to build a wall along the entire 2,000-mile boundary.
The seesaws were installed at the border fence separating Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico; images on social media show adults and children divided by the fence playing on them. The Mexican actor Mauricio Martínez highlighted the project on Twitter, saying that “artists have installed seesaws at the border wall”.
The scheme was devised by Ronald Rael, an architect professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Virginia San Fratello, an associate professor of design at San José State University (the pair’s architectural practice is called Rael San Fratello).