Last month we launched our new experimental competition series, “Charrettes” and kicked things off with the controversial Good Walls Make Good Neighbors, Mr. Trump Charrette. We asked participants to design a wall separating Donald Trump from the rest of the United States using one of a set of provided images of Trump properties. The responses were overwhelming, some quite disturbing, yet all appropriately irreverent and humorous all the same!
Congratulations to the winners and everyone who participated!
Best Overall Image: “FIREWALL – You’re Fired…Just Kidding, You’re Stuck Here Forever!” by Zachary Wilson
First Runner Up: “Taco Truck Block Party” by Rajiv Fernandez
Second Runner Up: “The Future is Bleak” by Rob Anderson
Third Runner Up: “2001: A Trump Odyssey” by Sara Castillo
Fourth Runner Up: “Decorated Shed” by Emily Johnson
Honorable Mention: “Greetings from Trump Island” by Donna Mena
Honorable Mention: “Shhh, Don’t Tell Richard” by Daniel Rogers
Honorable Mention: “Chicago’s Greenwall Pride” by Jenna Hertz
Honorable Mention: “Cleansing the Earth” by Aly Perez
Honorable Mention: “Um, A Little Help, Frank” by Joe Rosatino
Honorable Mention: “Escape from New York” by Oscar Turique
Honorable Mention: “We, The People of Walmart, Got Your Back, Donny” by
Honorable Mention: “Fiddling While Rome Burns” by Ava Wertin
Honorable Mention: “Trump Pizza” by Mark Horne
“Melania the Cerberus” by Teresa X
“Operation: Narcissistic Loop” by Daniel Houghton
“Intergalactic Pipe Dream” by Patrick Thorpe (allegedly)
“Trump Tower, Azkaban” by Taryn Bone
“Monumental Isolation” by Stefann Plishka
“1D Chess in the Phantom Zone” by Greg Norton
“The Golden Mirror” by Christian O. Strom
“And Now For Something Completely Different” by Tim Enlden
“All Servers Down” by Elan Barry
“Trumpeter’s Travels” by Kate Machtiger
“Ghostbusters 3” by Stephanie Alden
“Besties” by Andrew McGee
“Down Boy” by Michael Rich
“Meltdown” by Alexa Candrin
“I’m Almost Done, Eileen” by Jorge Mirez
“Even Frank Trump Can’t Take It Anymore” by Terri Ng
“House Arrest” by Amy Park
“Buckminster Fuller Dome for Trump” by Alex Ells
“Localized Black Hole” by Greg Lutz
“Saint Pablo Tour” by J. Solares
“Russian Nesting Trumps” by Sandra Aritza
“Superstudio Continuous Monument” by Mina Grandado
“Melania’s Toys” by Emily Kim
“Tangled Escape” by Warren Driggs
“Trimming the Hedges” by Andy Vines
“Great Wall of Trump” by Alex Fischer
“Triple Negative” by Olivia Puerta
“A Hole in the Wall” by Robert Sendelle
“Dumbest Group of Voters” by Jane Valentine
“Who Wore it Better?” by Lydia Jones
“My Lips Are Sealed” by Antonio Reyes
“I Should Have Read The Rules” by P. Quiros
“Think Big” by Jenny Ruy
“Fresh Prince Says – This Is Fine” by Joe Garcia
“Homer Trump For President” – Anonymous Entry
“The Open Hand of Trump” by Michael Jennings
“Brent Rambo Thumbs Up for Trump” by Andrea Weber
Charrette Introduction
Architecture competitions are important because they allow architects of all levels to communicate and solve problems together. However, architecture competitions ask too much, give too little and promote formats that do not acknowledge the brevity, speed and riffability required for mass exposure/communication today.
The goal of Charrettes is simple: redirect our creative energy towards saying a lot with a little and being compensated for our ideas. The work done here should not only showcase your talents, but should inspire. We want to ask questions more than produce answers. We want to create imagery that we can easily repost on social media outlets to disseminate ideas outside of the architecture community.
The Premise
Donald Trump’s proposal for a wall separating Mexico from the United States is a purportedly simple solution to a dubiously framed problem. The genius here is the exploitation of a universally recognized symbol of division and public exhaustion from complicated global politicking. The straightforward idea of building a wall – though preposterous – provides a sense of power in a time when many of us feel powerless.
Along these lines, I propose a similar solution to an arguably much more threatening actor: a wall separating Donald Trump from the United States.
The Proposal
Use one of the provided images below of a Trump property and redefine the architectural content or insert architecture of your own to separate it from the rest of the country.
Trump Tower New York
Trump Force One
Trump National Golf Course
Trump Tower Chicago
Trump Hotel Las Vegas
Prizes
+ All entries will be posted on the Reality Cues website
+ All entries will receive a Mini Lego Trump Wall (+ Reality Cues swag)
+ Prize for the best overall image will receive a Mega Lego Trump Wall (+ Reality Cues swag)
Reality Cues is about making architecture in digital, interactive, and social media, where ownership is communal and subject matter changes as quickly as users can click the ‘share’ button. Within this culture of reposting, reblogging, and retweeting is the opportunity to modify and subvert prevailing tendencies. Combine this with the ease with which anyone can alter images to create virtual worlds, and you are left with an increasingly fuzzy area between the so-called virtual and real. The Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, Mr. Trump Competition looks to accelerate this process to see just how fuzzy we can get.