“I’d build it. I’d build it very nicely. I’m very good at building things.” – 2016 US presidential candidate, Donald Trump.

While only Americans are permitted to vote in US Presidential Primaries and Presidential Elections, the weight of their results are felt globally. In particular, residents of Mexico have extra reason to pay attention to the outcome of the Republican Presidential Primaries, because if candidate Donald Trump were to win, and then go on to win the election in November, they’ll have a continent-wide wall erected on their border with the US.

Now, in unique twist on the issue, a US art, architecture and design collective has announced an international design competition to design Trump’s wall on the US southern border.

Building the Border Wall has been organised by New York’s Third Mind Foundation and set up to test the feasibility of Trumps border idea and whether or not a solution of high architectural and humanitarian merit can be achieved.

To do so, Third Mind are requesting entries from international architecture community and are requesting entrants to apply the discipline's problem-solving and aesthetic capacities in a bid to delve beyond the rhetoric and seriously consider the implications of the border wall issue.

Building the Border Wall is open to everyone, including students and professionals from any country worldwide. Entries will have to consider many geographical challenges, including the traverse of valleys, mountains, rivers, an Indian reservation, private land, state property, and even the library of a state university. They also have to factor in other considerations like cost, worker and material availability and time frames.

Early bird registration for the competition begins on 22 March and is open until 16 May. It incurs a fee of USD $50 or USD $75 thereafter. All registrations will close 18 July, 2016.

Submissions must contain project information including plans, sections, elevations and perspectives. The Third Mind Foundation also requests that a 600 word project statement is included in all submissions.

A first, second and third prize will be announced on 26 September, 2016 and they will receive cash prizes of USD $5,000, USD $2,000 and USD $1,000 respectively.

The jury is yet to be finalised, but Third Mind has listed deceased architects Buckminster Fuller, Luis Barragan and Mies Van Der Rohe.

For more information visit: buildingtheborderwall.com