hostile architecture

English

Noun

hostile architecture (uncountable)

  1. A type of architecture and design strategy for buildings, roads, park benches, etc, which aims to discourage homeless people, skateboarders, or others from sitting, sleeping, skateboarding or otherwise using a space, for example by covering it with spikes.
    • 2020, Noreena Hertz, The Lonely Century‎[1], →ISBN:
      The Camden Bench is not an anomaly: more and more, our cities are being designed to keep those deemed as ‘undesirables’ out. By its very nature this is ‘hostile architecture’—urban design with a focus on exclusion, design that inhibits community and tells us who is welcome and who is not.
    • 2025 April 19, Jacob Silverman, “Welcome to Slop World”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 16:
      On a human level, the new facility [Moynihan Train Hall] is a disaster. Like so many other places defined by the principles of hostile architecture, there's almost nowhere to sit, lest a homeless person might find a place to take a nap.

Further reading

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