Hostile Architecture: Are you Welcome in Public Spaces?
STACY ST. HILAIRE
Credit: Shengpengpeng Cai
One day during my last semester of college I missed the train. I was going home, so it wasn’t a matter of me being late, but unfortunately the train only comes once an hour at that time of night. Since I now had an hour to kill, I decided to walk to the bank to get some cash. I walk back the way I just came, use my card to get to the ATMs, and find my banking experience much more pleasant than expected. There is music playing, I have wifi for some odd reason, and it’s heated! This is much more preferable to waiting outside in the train station by myself for the full hour, so I decide to extend my stay, just long enough until I have to catch the next train. Eventually, I look around to see if there is a place to sit, only to spot this monstrosity:
Chase Bank on 225th Street, Marble Hill, New York photo taken by Stacy St. Hilaire
Obviously, this would have been the perfect place to sit for a short while, if it wasn’t for the hideous triangular add on. Clearly, it is designed to be a deterrent to sitting—especially after hours. Me being me, I tried anyway. It wasn’t that bad, but certainly not comfortable for long periods of time, which is exactly what they are going for. This is a prime example of Hostile Architecture.
Hostile Architecture, or defensive architecture, is an intentional design strategy implemented to control how public space is used. Hostile architecture is used to deter skateboarding, loitering, homeless people from sleeping in public, and many other things. Many people are unaware of the implementation of hostile architecture in urban design, but little by little it is gaining traction. Supporters of hostile architecture say that it helps deter crime and property damage; detractors wonder how public space can be public space if it is being “defended” against members of the public.
So maybe you never noticed that bus and train stops have sloping seats or arm rests on benches. Or maybe you noticed those seemingly nonsensical and uncomfortable chairs at Port Authority. You wonder why these chairs are so annoying, but don’t think about it otherwise. However, the truth is arm rests prevent homeless people from being able to lay on benches; uncomfortable chairs prevent loitering. Often, hostile architecture is added to target undesirables or undesirable behavior. For instance, in the bank I was in it is very clear that the triangular block was added later, specifically to deter someone like me from being there too long. You can tell because the add on is only on the parts of the ledge that people can access after business hours. Inside the bank, the ledge is ugly triangular add-on free.
Photo taken by Stacy St. Hilaire
“Hostile Architecture, or defensive architecture, is an intentional design strategy implemented to control how public space is used. ”
Here are some other examples of hostile architecture. Try to see if you can guess what they are deterring.
Answer: loitering at the bus stop and homeless people sleeping. A sloping bench is uncomfortable to sit on and lay on.
Answer: Homeless people sleeping. Grates provide warmth in the winter, so homeless people often sleep on them.
Answer: This beauty was designed to keep birds out of trees. Even nature isn’t safe.
Answer: This is a very popular piece of hostile architecture. The camden bench is designed to deter several different kinds of behavior including sleeping, skateboarding, drug dealing, littering, graffiti, and theft.
Other examples of hostile architecture include gaps in awnings so that people below can’t stay dry (especially if they were going to lay underneath), paint that causes urine to splash back on the person peeing, and sprinklers that aren’t watering anything to keep an area wet or to make someone move.
Governments are spending taxpayer money to manipulate public space. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is one thing, but making public spaces uncomfortable for public use so the public doesn’t use it is another. Cities the world over have a hostile design problem, and it is up to us to notice, and to hold local governments accountable. It’s not fair that the everyday person trying to use public space has to be uncomfortable, often solely to punish the homeless population or to prevent teens from loitering. It is also wrong to use public space to decide who is worthy of public space.