Public spaces should accommodate the public ? and that means everyone. They should make us feel appreciated and supported as citizens. They should encourage us to linger, enjoy our surroundings and interact with each other. When urban environments fail to meet these basic needs, they?re also altering the mood of the entire city, making it more cynical, unfriendly, and just plain ugly.
Hostile architecture isn?t a design problem. It won?t be corrected by asking designers to twist themselves into pretzels to produce public spaces that are somehow equitable, attractive, social, and also aggressively unwelcoming to people who are seen as undesirable. It has to be addressed on a social and political level, starting with our own individual actions. If you’re disturbed by increasingly hostile urban design in your area, call it out publicly and hold your local authorities accountable for change. Top image by u/supremecrafters via r/HostileArchitecture

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