Hostile prototypes: plastic urbanism in San Francisco

Abstract

Turning to the concept of plasticity in the philosophy of Catherine Malabou, this article traces an approach to urban change as a volatile movement of giving, receiving and exploding form. It diverges from lines of thinking within cultural geography that affirm lively processes and relations, instead calling attention to the finite and fragile morphologies of cities and their exposure to the threat of destruction. The article examines a planning programme in San Francisco which invites local groups to craft and care for temporary street furniture. Intended to facilitate civic engagement, such artefacts acquire plastic properties that further divide and disrupt populations, particularly those experiencing homelessness. Attuning to this negative power of form illuminates an emerging hostile urbanism that utilises provisional structures to irreversibly alter the constitution of places.

A Classification Scheme for Hostile Design

“…The notion of "hostile architecture" or "hostile design" has become important within contemporary research and criticism on the politics of urban spaces, especially in online journalism, blogging, and social media. An academic discussion is also beginning to emerge, one that is widely interdisciplinary and still largely fragmented and exploratory (e.g., Savicic & Savic, 2013;Rosenberger, 2014;Schindler, 2015;Chellew, 2016;Petty, 2016;Armborst et al, 2017;de Fine Licht, 2017;Jensen, 2017;Rosenberger, 2017a;Stevens, 2017;Smith & Walters, 2018;Chellew, 2019;de Fine Licht, 2020;Eggersglüß, 2020;Crippen & Klement, 2020;Jensen, 2020;Lorini & Moroni, 2020;Rosenberger, 2020b;Binnington & Russo, 2021;Lynch, 2021;Nitrato Izzo, 2022;Giamariano et al, 2023;Kullman, 2023;Moatasim, 2023). The fledgling status of this discussion is reflected in the variety of terms used in different writings to refer to similar phenomena, which, in addition to "hostile architecture" and "hostile design, " include "unpleasant design, " "disciplinary architecture, " "architectural exclusion, " "defensive architecture, " and others.…”