More barriers exist now than at the end of World War II, says designer Alexandra Auer. And when you erect one wall, you unwittingly create a second -- an "us" versus "them" partition in the mind that compromises our collective safety. With intriguing results from her social design project focused on two elementary schools separated by a fence, A...

Walls have been our direct response to threat for centuries and over the last 20 years the global desire for walls has been growing. We have more border barriers now, in the age of internet and globalisation, than at the end of the second world war. But the effects of walls on societies go far beyond protection: Walls separate by establishing an...