Unpleasant Design: The Silent Rise of the Hostile City

Table Of Content

• Editorial: The Supreme Court cannot allow homelessness to be a crime
• Building Connections: The Integral Role of Architecture in Human Existence and Community
• Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities
• Column: We’re wiping out the Southern California steelhead trout. Time to fix that

You see a beautifully designed bench in the park and decide to take a moment to rest and enjoy the view. In Ghana, hundreds of jagged rocks are strewn among the ground to prevent homeless people from residing there. It’s interesting to note how evident it is that these rocks only serve this one purpose. Although these benches aren’t as rigidly-segmented as the ones listed above, their unorthodox designs make it difficult for people to lie down or relax on them. After six months of renovation, these leaning bars appeared in Bay Ridge’s 53rd station on the R line. Although these beams were said to conserve space, many were quick to criticize their lack of support, especially for those who are elderly, disabled, ill, homeless, or simply want to sit down.

Editorial: The Supreme Court cannot allow homelessness to be a crime

Their lack of holes or crevices prevents drugs from being stored inside them, and the surface design is intended to prevent littering. The BBC has described these benches as a “masterpiece in unpleasant design,” especially given that they are also not comfortable to sit on. In order to deter homeless people from camping under a particular overpass in Seattle, the city’s Department of Transportation installed eighteen bicycle racks in that space. The racks consisted of simple metal arches protruding from the ground.

Building Connections: The Integral Role of Architecture in Human Existence and Community

Hostile architecture, sometimes called defensive urban design or exclusionary design, is the name for uncomfortable elements built into public features such as park benches or added to building door fronts to prevent homeless sleepers from commandeering the spaces. Ranging from slanting benches to metal spikes, hostile architecture occurs when elements of the built environment are specifically designed to curtail “undesirable” use. Usually, the groups targeted by hostile architecture are homeless people looking for somewhere to rest or teenagers looking for somewhere to play.

Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities

Spikes and ridges may be the most shocking type of hostile design, but little fences, such as the one around the entire perimeter of Washinton Park are just as offensive. The ridges around the federal courthouse prevent people from sitting on their wall. The ridged metal in front of Holtman’s Donuts stops people, who may be waiting on a bus there, from having a comfortable place to sit. The recent removal of many of the bus benches throughout the city highlights the lack of value we put into our public transit system. Hostile design is typically implemented to deter whatever behaviour the local authorities feel is most disruptive to their society, from littering to loitering, drug use, and even homelessness.

How 'Hostile Design' Hides in Plain Sight in Austin - The Texas Observer

How 'Hostile Design' Hides in Plain Sight in Austin.

Posted: Tue, 15 May 2018 07:00:00 GMT [source]

We asked her about how unpleasant design is evolving, what it says about cities. In the words of Frank Swain, the Camden bench is “the perfect anti-object” for its ability to strictly regulate its use. With its irregular curves, it’s difficult for skateboarders to grind on it and for people to lie on it; with its crannyless surface, it’s impossible to stash drugs in or drop garbage through it.

Advocates for the homeless say cities want more power to sweep away encampments. Cities say they desperately want some clarification and guidance from the courts. The more liberal 9th Circuit, Newsom said, had “tied the hands of state and local governments” by issuing vague rulings that invited litigation from homeless people and their advocates every time California jurisdictions tried to address the problem. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who led the court’s liberal flank in attacking the criminalization of homeless people, struck a similar note. Explore Rhode Island School of Design’s online intensives for high school students interested in pursuing art and design in college. In a sense, Semple’s campaign merges the efforts of these two predecessors, with its worldwide focus and reliance on social media.

In 2014, widespread outrage arose when a luxury London apartment building installed “anti-homeless spikes“ to prevent people from sleeping in an alcove near the front door. The spikes, which were removed following the public outcry, drew attention to a broader urban phenomenon known as hostile architecture. The problem with hostile architecture, and the source of its negatively connotated name, come from its impact on the homeless community in the area. This type of architecture targets the homeless community, who are often looking for places to sleep or rest in public, by purposefully restricting these individuals’ access to an area. A common type of hostile architecture comes in the form of “anti-homeless spikes” or studs that are embedded in flat surfaces to make sleeping, needless to say, difficult, uncomfortable and impractical.

The current encampments and protests are “well within a deeply worn tradition of student activism on college campuses,” said Cohen. Several student-led organizations across the country, such as Students for Justice in Palestine’s Columbia University chapter, have listed similar demands on social media. But students say they are determined to remain at their encampments until their respective universities hear and meet their demands. Police ordered student activists and protesters at other colleges — including Yale University, NYU, the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas at Austin — to disperse or face arrest. That evening, masked pro-Palestinian protesters occupied an administrative building at Cal Poly Humboldt and barricaded the entrance, prompting administrators to shut down the public university.

That oddly-placed statue hurts more than the building's aesthetic - Varsity

That oddly-placed statue hurts more than the building's aesthetic.

Posted: Mon, 22 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Spring Member Drive: The Urbanist Has Come a Long Way in 10 Years

We need to look from the very beginning to see if spaces are being designed for everyone,” she says. With the homeless population in South Florida relying on tourists to survive, COVID-19 makes earning some form of an income tough enough even without these new architectural pieces. Just to add to the turbulent times, this form of city planning has sent the message to our homeless populations that we do not want them here, which I am sure for the majority of South Florida’s population is far from the truth.

Where there is a genuine need to create safe spaces that are sympathetic to the needs of different identity groups, hostile design is employed as a quick and cheap solution. This allows, says Atkinson, the inclusive agenda to fall by the wayside. Spanning nearly 200 square meters beneath the Huangshi highway, these concrete spikes prevent homeless people from using the bridge as shelter, Residents reported that people used to gather under the viaduct but have since been forced to move out.

In addition to providing a place to lock up one’s bike, they made it difficult to set up camp. However, they were soon removed after gaining negative media attention. This is to contrast with the privatization of public spaces, like alleys and sidewalks, in the area. While people on fixed and low incomes are struggling to stand waiting for the bus, a few feet away restaurant outcroppings take up the majority of the sidewalk. People sitting, enjoying their expensive meals can enjoy the sidewalk space, but it is otherwise an offense to sit on the sidewalk.

Last year, researcher Cara Chellew created #defensiveTO, a website that documents hostile architecture in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. Homeless people and the inclusion of "drug dealers" and " drug users" in that reference as written here is purely discriminatory. The latter being a consequence of failed drug policy popularly supported by the public. The drug war has been around since the 80s, it's old but has become so ingrained it now supports several industries. The responsibility is in part ours .Altho it's comfortable isn't it, to sit in our homes judging the lives of people whose lives we know nothing of, other than that they are dirty and criminal and unfit to look at.