The slow death of the public space
Hostile architecture, what is it? It is architecture that forces you to interact with your environment a certain way. If you walk through a public park and it does not have any sitting options, you are more likely to continue walking instead of taking a rest. You are waiting for the bus and your legs hurt, but the bench is slightly slanted so you end up with back pain instead. This is hostile architecture. Also known as Defensive Urban design (CPTED), which is a strategy that aims to restrict behaviour in urban spaces as a form of crime prevention. In reality, it primarily makes the space inaccessible for marginalised communities: homeless people, people living below the poverty line, youth, and disabled people. There is a lack of empirical evidence that supports the CPTED strategy, yet it has become commonplace in big urban centers, such as Toronto and New York city.
First and foremost, why does this matter? Parks, plaza, streets, and side-walks are the backbone of the public space. Yet, since the 19th century, they have grown significantly more unwelcoming. Public spaces are important to a city’s social ecosystem. They are key to sustaining a person’s social life, by providing a free space for human interaction. These interactions allow people to create an active community and bond with each other, decreasing cultural and social-economic divides which would otherwise be amplified. In other words, you are more likely to be friends with someone you sit next to everyday, than a stranger you quickly rush past on your way to work. Hostile architecture is usually done to keep marginalised people out of public urban spaces, but it also decreases the functionality of the public space for everyone.
Hostile architecture is everywhere – and I mean, everywhere! You are probably familiar with ‘anti-homeless spikes’ or surface spikes, usually placed under covered areas to prevent people from loitering. However, hostile architecture extends to many aspects of public architecture that likely already affect your life. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find benches lately? And when you do find one, it tends to suck. Segmented benches, slanted benches, and even divided arm chairs in an emergency room, are all part of the CPTED strategy. Highlighting places do not want you to be comfortable, because they do not want you to stay. Have you noticed piles of giant rocks, or very ‘weirdly-shaped’ designed benches? Hostile architecture! City planners make purposeful inconvenient designs under the mask of aesthetics. In reality, it is just less efficient and less comfortable spaces for the public.
The removal of amenities in public spaces is the most subtle yet pervasive form of hostile architecture. People tend to not notice because how can you notice what is not there? It is the purposeful lack of bathrooms, water-stations, and insufficient sitting in public squares. This is not just making the environment slightly less comfortable, it is also intentionally making an environment inhospitable and lacking in basic-human necessities. Hostile architecture can even extend to businesses, such as Starbucks, who have long traded their cozy-hipster aesthetic for a design that favours ‘a quick-grab’ before work.
Why? Because the quicker people traverse, the less people stay, the more money they make. The world is no longer designed by people for people. Instead, it is designed to keep things moving as quickly and as efficiently as possible like a well-oiled machine. Ask yourself next time you are in public, does this space want me here? It is an eye opening exercise to notice just how much the modern world encourages us to isolate ourselves.