Shipping Containers and Micro-Units: Miami Firm Offers an Option For a Border Wall

• March 9, 2017

by Nena Perry-Brown

A rendering of DOMO’s vision for a border wall

As the Department of Homeland Security begins accepting solicitations for contractors to construct a wall between the United States and Mexico, a Miami-based architectural firm has lofty visions of how that wall could look and function.

Politico reported that DOMO Design Studio has drawn up a sustainable wall, constructed of recycled shipping containers and designed to mimic the surrounding topography along the 2,000-mile border.

Where the natural terrain provides no border, 25-foot deep trenches would be dug into the ground to allow three containers to be stacked; however, the exteriors of these containers would be designed to blend in with the terrain, be it waterways, canyons, mountains or man-made landscape like public art and shopping malls.

In more urban areas, the containers could have solar panels and rainwater collection and could function as animal shelters or 350 square-foot micro-unit apartments.

“Llado thinks shipping containers are the only object of the needed size that already exists in surplus and can be readily repurposed for such a large-scale project,” Politico reports. The cost-effectiveness of shipping containers may also help keep the price tag down for Mexico, especially key as cost estimates have reportedly ranged from $8 billion to $25 billion.

While DOMO has not yet confirmed whether they will submit the proposal for consideration, engineering and design firms have until March 20th to put forth solicitations.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_most_beautiful_border_wall/12315