Hostile Architecture as a Cover-Up to Affordable Housing

Hostile Architecture as a Cover-Up to Affordable Housing

Written by Faith Chen



Hostile architecture, also known as defensive design, is a strategy to maintain order in urban areas by restricting activities. Order includes–but is not limited to–the prevention of crime, protection of property, and curtailing the livelihoods of the homeless population. (Chellew, 2019). According to Pinto (2020), hostile architecture is seen as a solution to health and public safety; explicit forms of defensive urban design, such as ‘anti-homeless spikes,’ may ruin the aesthetic appeal of spaces leading to hostile architecture being implemented in more subtle ways. An incident involving metal spikes in 2014 in London sparked outrage and brought awareness to the exclusive methods of social control. (Petty, 2016). Additional examples of defensive design include benches designed to prevent lying down, skateboard deterrents (Chellew, 2019), or any other object which aims to exclude people from a public area.

Given today’s COVID-19 circumstances, Pinto (2020) reminds us that specific interventional strategies such as plexiglass divides, barriers, and other social distancing cues–although meant to keep schools and offices safe–are rooted in designs that marginalized communities in the past. The defensive design includes both the removal or the addition of objects which aim to deter people from usage. The addition of bars on park benches or the removal of chairs ultimately aims to prevent the homeless from having a place to rest. According to Chellew (2019), the defensive design could also include the strategic addition of light, sound, or surveillance devices, which will cause people to steer clear of space but may be argued to have positive intentions, including crime prevention. While some may claim defensive design is intended to increase public safety and health, these strategies are often a method of concealing the much larger and prominent issue of affordable housing and access to amenities.

The defensive design has a forbidding history to it, as it has been known to exclude community members from public spaces that can not afford a home. Andreou (2015) of The Guardian says that defensive architecture “keeps poverty unseen and sanitizes our shopping centers, concealing any guilt for over-consuming. It speaks volumes about our collective attitude to poverty in general and homelessness in particular.” Much of hostile architecture is put into place so that poverty is hidden from the public eye. Slanted seats are implemented to prevent the ‘rough sleepers’ of the homeless population from denying that they were loitering by sleeping and instead were ‘just waiting for the bus.’ (Rosenberger, 2014); while rough sleepers only occupy a small percentage of the homeless population, people tend to associate their practices with the whole population. This leads to the construction of devices such as spikes to prevent begging, rough sleeping, and loitering. Instead of investing in temporary solutions such as barriers and spikes, we should invest in constructing more shelters and affordable housing units.

One such option could be the construction of housing using shipping containers. Millions of shipping containers are discarded after only a single-use because it is usually cheaper to get new shipping containers than it is to send them back to suppliers. Furthermore, according to the World Steel Association, it takes at least 8,000 kWh of energy to reprocess or melt a used 4-ton shipping container. SG Blocks says that it takes only 400 to 800 kWh to repurpose a shipping container into an SG Blocks building unit, which is significantly less energy than it takes to remanufacture a shipping container. (Guevarra, 2008). According to the SG Blocks’ website, they “work with architects, developers, builders, and commercial clients to help them build incredibly safe, strong, and green structures using code-engineered shipping containers.” The idea of repurposing shipping containers to be commercial buildings or residential homes is an up-and-rising design strategy. If we can use shipping containers to make larger residential homes, we can also create affordable housing units containing only the necessities: living space, bathroom, insulation, and possibly a kitchen. From this, not only do we promote green design, but we can combat homelessness. This being said, it is both more cost and energy-efficient to repurpose applicable used shipping containers to build affordable housing.

Hostile architecture solutions are not viable solutions for the overarching issue of homelessness. Much of hostile architecture aims to exclude groups of people, particularly the homeless population, by installing subtle ways that would make the homeless uncomfortable enough to search for another place. Perhaps employing members of the homeless community to assist in building modular units such as the shipping containers would be helpful to get them back on their feet. In public spaces such as bus stops with slanted seats — that one could not even sit on but would have to lean on — a more portable design intervention apart from the shipping containers would be foam blocks or other materials which could provide adequate comfort in the form of seating. They could be triangular-shaped and maybe hinge onto the edges of actual seating. A con to this would be that people will abuse this luxury and loiter around, even if they aren’t homeless. A similar design for comfort would be foam blocks or other materials that cover any unnecessary bars or deterrents on park benches for the night when the homeless need to sleep. These designs, however, would not be necessary if the world would face the genuine issue of homelessness, to begin with, and combat the leading causes: “(1) lack of affordable housing, (2) unemployment, (3) poverty, (4) mental illness and the lack of needed services, and (5) substance abuse and the lack of needed services.” (National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty).




Bibliography

Andreou, A. (2015, February 18). Defensive architecture: Keeping poverty unseen and deflecting our guilt. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/18/defensive-architecture-keeps-poverty-undeen-and-makes-us-more-hostile

Chellew, C. (2019). Defending Suburbia: Exploring the Use of Defensive Urban Design Outside of the City Centre. Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 28(1), 19–33.

Guevarra, L. (2008, September 17). Using Recycled Shipping Containers as Building Blocks for Green Construction | Greenbiz. https://www.greenbiz.com/article/using-recycled-shipping-containers-building-blocks-green-construction

Petty, J. (2016). The London Spikes Controversy: Homelessness, Urban Securitisation and the Question of ‘Hostile Architecture.’ International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy. https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/792/550



Rosenberger, R. (2014, June 19). How Cities Use Design to Drive Homeless People Away. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/06/how-cities-use-design-to-drive-homeless-people-away/373067/