Hostile Architecture: The Unseen War on the Public Body
In the cities we inhabit, there’s a quiet war being waged — not with weapons, but with design. From slanted benches to metal spikes on flat surfaces, from dividers on public ledges to cold bars that split benches into uncomfortable thirds, this is not simply urban planning. It’s hostile architecture — and its target is the very people cities are meant to serve.
You may have passed it without even noticing. That cold concrete structure under a bridge studded with bumps. That polished bench with unforgiving armrests. That strange protrusion under a storefront awning that prevents anyone from lying down. These are deliberately unfriendly designs, meant to discourage loitering, sleeping, resting, or gathering — particularly by the unhoused, the youth, the elderly, and the marginalized.
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