Table Of Content
- Editorial: The Supreme Court cannot allow homelessness to be a crime
- Pay & Sit benches in Shandong, China Hostile Architecture
- How Homes in Bali Are Designed for Harmony—and to Keep Demons at Bay
- Nadya Tolonnikova Headlines American Folk Art Museum Benefit Event
- ‘Hostile Architecture’: How Public Spaces Keep the Public Out
- Latest articles

When placed in uncertain and stressful situations, individuals who view pictures of nature scenery showed less physiological distress. Back in 2012, the London Borough of Camden turned international heads with its newly commissioned public benches. With slanted edges, no crevices or hiding places and impermeable surface, the “Camden Bench” – as it would come to be known – was lauded as a great example of street furniture. Those involved in designing against humanity, or funding designs against humanity are committing the worst possible design crime. It could even be the use of annoying music (such as bagpipes) in a public space to prevent loitering.
Editorial: The Supreme Court cannot allow homelessness to be a crime
If you have ever seen this—or spikes on small walls, sloping window ledges, and random sprinklers—you have experienced hostile architecture. Whether you call it hostile architecture, defensive design, or exclusionary planning, it is used to alter human behavior and limit the ways in which an object can be used. The Camden Bench is an example of what Semple, and others like him, call hostile design. Put simply, hostile designs are intentionally created to restrict behaviours in urban spaces in order to maintain public order. In some neighborhoods in England, they have even begun placing spikes on trees to prevent birds from landing. At this rate, I would not be surprised to see cities around the U.S. employing this type of architecture to prevent our native wildlife from existing in public areas.
Pay & Sit benches in Shandong, China Hostile Architecture
Hostile Architecture: 'Design Crimes' Campaign Gets Bars Removed from Benches - 99% Invisible
Hostile Architecture: 'Design Crimes' Campaign Gets Bars Removed from Benches.
Posted: Sun, 02 Sep 2018 07:00:00 GMT [source]
IDEAS is the place you'll find essays, analysis and opinion on every aspect of life and public affairs in Hawaii. We want to showcase smart ideas about the future of Hawaii, from the state's sharpest thinkers, to stretch our collective thinking about a problem or an issue. Honolulu Civil Beat is a nonprofit organization, and your donation helps us produce local reporting that serves all of Hawaii. Uncomfortable, off-putting features are incorporated into private and public structures more and more to discourage other behaviors such as urinating in public, skateboarding and graffiti.
How Homes in Bali Are Designed for Harmony—and to Keep Demons at Bay
Not only does this practice contradict the main tenets of public space (i.e., accessibility, freedom of usage, inclusivity), but it is likely to also lower the quality of the space in general. From spikes installed on window ledges to bars that divide benches into a set number of seats, examples of disciplinary architecture — otherwise known as hostile urban architecture — are all around us. Such designs deliberately restrict certain behaviors in public spaces, and while they affect everyone, they especially target homeless individuals, who cannot rest on these surfaces. Many of the urban design choices for hostile architecture include the use of anti-homeless spikes, bars on park benches, locked park gates, or bright lighting in subway alcoves.
Recent studies of homelessness in California, they say, have shown most homeless people in the state lived here before becoming homeless. While policies that criminalize homeless people do uproot them, Donovan said, it is locally and temporarily — and with negative consequences, not positive ones. Connecting homeless people with services is a great solution, he said, but citations and arrests can make that process more challenging. In an interview, Sandefur said camping bans don’t just bounce homeless people from town to town, but often lead them to return to staying with family or friends or get connected to temporary housing or other resources — which is exactly what local governments want. For outside observers — including a slew of local municipalities, legal scholars and other stakeholders who submitted their own independent briefs to the court — the case touches on philosophical differences about how to help homeless people. This is what the public gets when there's no enforcement of laws on loitering, sleeping in parks, or public facilities.
Nadya Tolonnikova Headlines American Folk Art Museum Benefit Event
Co-sponsored by HD and the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), these product awards are held in conjunction with the annual HD Expo to recognize quality design. Winners will be revealed and celebrated at HD Expo and featured online and in Hospitality Design magazine. Since joining the Times in 1989, she has covered immigration, ethnic communities, religion, Pacific Rim business and served as Tokyo correspondent and bureau chief. She also covered Asia, national affairs and state government for the San Jose Mercury News and wrote editorials for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. A Seattle native, she graduated from USC in journalism and in East Asian languages and culture. The campus response “has not been draconian at all because of open channels of communication to administration, which have been very productive,” Ghosh said.
‘Hostile Architecture’: How Public Spaces Keep the Public Out
In addition, other forms of lighting are also sometimes used in the hostile design. Pink lighting has recently appeared to decrease teenage loitering because it highlights skin blemishes, and blue lights have been used in Tokyo and Glasgow to lower crime rates due to their calming effect. Hostile design also called defensive architecture, is a form of architectural design whose features and elements attempt to influence human behaviour in a public or shared space. Hostile design can be used as a deterrent for unwanted public behaviour, but it also acts as a political statement for many, and debate continues on its place in society.
U.S. Supreme Court: California's Impact Fees May Violate Takings Clause
Walking through Over-the-Rhine and Downtown Cincinnati, I was able to capture several forms of hostile design. Listen, I don’t think homeless encampments should be allowed to displace children from parks, as happened during the pandemic, nor that tents should be allowed to proliferate on beaches and city sidewalks, blocking rights of way and spilling detritus into the streets. Cities obviously must have the right to regulate the use of public spaces.
Check our urbanist events calendar to see everything happening this month, including events hosted by partner organizations. On the side of Below Zero Lounge, there is a security camera and a mosquito box. Every time you walk by it announces “Warning, you are being videotaped” and gives off a high pitch noise.

Researchers like Chellew and Nadia Galati, a principal at PROCESS, argue that designing cities for the most vulnerable groups creates more accessible and pleasant public spaces for everyone. Galati recommends implementing a paid community engagement process for new parks and public space projects, whereby residents are paid for their participation in order to attract more input from underrepresented groups. This so-called hostile architecture has flourished in New York, even as the city has significantly added more public space in the last decade, including new plazas and parkland, pedestrian areas once used for cars and reclaimed industrial waterfront. This site exists to provide a platform to raise awareness around hostile design, empower you to name and shame those involved in it and create a living archive of hostile design around the globe.
In an effort to make public spaces more inclusive, a new pocket park in the Callowhill neighborhood will seek input from people experiencing homelessness on how to make the space more welcoming and functional. The message that urban design can improve mental health is still unusual and does not often feature in public health, architecture, or urban planning dialogues. Historically, experts in urban planning and mental health have worked in their own separate camps with little interaction. Organizations like the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health (UD/MH) are working to fill this gap by building a synergistic connection between the two. This multidisciplinary approach includes psychologists, psychiatrists, urban planners, architects, geographers, engineers, policymakers, and anyone who would like to design better mental health into cities.
California cities are looking to the Supreme Court to win more authority to restrict homeless encampments. Set up over 20 years ago, the NHAS is a partnership between Shelter and Citizens Advice, funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government. The overall aims of the project are to enable frontline providers to deliver good quality housing and homelessness advice, and support and facilitate the prevention of homelessness where possible. From decades of experience of working with thousands of homeless people, we know what's needed to leave homelessness behind for good. We use this experience to shape the services we provide and the changes we campaign for. Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through our advice, support and legal services.
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