Thinking of walls and what taking them down might mean

Tomorrow (9 November 2009) is the 2oth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The taking down of that wall signified the end of the separation of Germany into East and West, and for many was a physical manifestation of the end of the cold war. The fall of the wall was greeted with euphoria as the artificial divisions the wall created with their accompanying pain and hardship were done away with.

In South Africa, the Goethe Institute is marking this anniversary with a project to take down the wall around the institute. The Fall Wall project was given to architecture students at the University of Johannesburg, who were invited to submit designs for alternative borders for the institute. In security conscious South Africa, we are all too familiar with living behind high walls, and the price we pay in isolation and paranoia for this. The Fall Wall project invites us to reconsider our ideas about security, walls and what the taking down of walls might mean for us.

Can we be secure without walls around us? Will alternatives to physical barriers be as effective in keeping us safe? It's a challenging idea. One website which has recently taken up the challenge, approaching security in a different way is Crime Aware. The idea here is to share information about crime and through spreading awareness, create safer communities. Walls certainly do not stop crime; at best they are deterrents, and we pay a price for living behind them. In my book, it is certainly worth exploring other alternatives which might help create a safer and more secure society.

Labels: Berlin Wall, Fall of Berlin Wall, Fall Wall project, security, walls

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