Hostile urban architecture: A critical discussion of the seemingly offensive art of keeping people away

Abstract

<p>For many years, some urban architecture has aimed to exclude unwanted groups of people from some locations. This type of architecture is called “defensive” or “hostile” architecture and includes benches that cannot be slept on, spikes in the ground that cannot be stood on, and pieces of metal that hinder one’s ability to skateboard. These defensive measures have sparked public outrage, with many thinking such measures lead to suffering, are disrespectful, and violate people’s rights. In this paper, it is argued that these views are difficult to defend and that much more empirical research on the topic is needed. <em></em></p>

Imagining and Making Material Encounters: Skateboarding, Emplacement, and Spatial Desire

“…A tendency within city planning is to make bricks and rough transitions that lead up to benches, railings, and potential skateable surfaces, in a way that hinders skateboarders in that specific urban space (de Fine Licht, 2017; Németh, 2006). The above example illustrates how architectural barriers rather generate new spatial desires and imaginations.…”

“…Moreover, they are made in collaboration with skateboarders and sometimes by skateboarders themselves. Professionals with dual careers, both skateboarders and architects, engage in this endeavor (see de Fine Licht, 2017).…”

On hostile design: Theoretical and empirical prospects

“…Academics are now beginning to join the discussion, with a scattering of individual contributions pulling together ideas from a disparate collection of disciplinary perspectives, including law, radical geography, urban studies, surveillance studies, planning, design, sociology, activist art, criminology, philosophy and more (e.g. Chellew, 2016; de Fine Licht, 2017; Léopold, 2013; Petty, 2016; Rosenberger, 2017a; Savičić and Savić, 2013; Schindler, 2015; Smith and Walters, 2018). 1 This budding contemporary work builds on a rich history of research on systems of power, surveillance, privatisation and discrimination across urban spaces (e.g.…”

“… 2. The notion of ‘defensive architecture’, which is not reducible to the more narrow idea of hostile design, is advanced and defended in the work of Oscar Newman (e.g., 1972). For an insightful defence of hostile design, but also one which sidesteps addressing how such design can contribute to larger agendas, see de Fine Licht (2017). …”

Everyday citizenship and COVID-19: “Staying at home” while homeless

“…homeless using defensive design or hostile architecture (De Fine Licht, 2017;Rosenberger, 2019;Stevens, 2017). This includes physical modifications such as placing bars across benches or spikes on sections of sidewalk commonly used for sleeping (see Stevens, 2017or Rosenberger, 2019 for photographic examples of hostile architecture).…”