MY CITY IS HOSTILE... and so is yours. Here's why.
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- This alarming trend goes by several names: “defensive design”, “design against crime”, or simply: “hostile architecture”. But whatever you call it, it communicates the same thing: “don’t make yourself at home in public spaces".
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:29 What is hostile architecture?
05:13 Anti-Community Design
08:56 “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”
Episode No. 149
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In my city they spent 200k to place a ton of big sharp boulders under the freeway downtown the same month the only shelter closed due to lack of funding LoL
Wow that allmost sounds evil
@@TheAschkeksbecause it is lol
Yeah, there was some backlash but the mayor basically just shrugged his shoulders and said "Oops sorry" and that was that
Would you rather have a tent city??
@@ChristianKurzke I would rather like to have affordable housing or section 8 housing that actually works. I know disabled person that spent 7 years living in a tent waiting for a slip than spent another year to even find a rental company that wouldn't discriminate against it. They are not supposed to discriminate but they do all the time. Thank goodness I have family in this city or I would be homeless right now from when I broke my leg last year and couldn't work at all.
It's insane these days on the West Coast, in a lot of cases in my city you need to make over $60k a year to even have your application accepted at 80% places renting and a handy $6000 to move in. There are rooms for rent but people are trying to charge up to $900 for those and they come with weird rules like not being allowed to use the refrigerator or wacky stuff like that 😂. It's also weird how they have all this magic housing for people coming here illegally.
Idk it's just getting bad man, we live in a country where missing a rent payment or two due to hardship has the potential to destroy your life for years if not forever. There will always be homeless people some people are just naturally a vagabond like that but now it's almost like even if you work full time and do everything right it still won't matter.
It's a way of denying a problem. And once you deny it, it doesn't exist anymore. Such a short-sighted approach. 😡😡😡
It's evil
Wrong design can enable crime, but regular design also can restrict it and fight it far on average far better than a stupid government decision and central plan could do. However, in some places you can even fail with a "working design approach", if you go for standards. This destroys the beauty of a city and "local tourism" the same way criminals do, and denies a problem, so the additional costs remain.
And in my opinion it is deliberate ignorance on the part of politicians. Because it is cheaper than getting involved in the complex social problems and their prevention. At least one political movement would lose its right to exist (or severely restrict it) if it admitted that problems were ignored in the long term. Or if it even had to admit that this concept makes society as a whole less resilient to unforeseeable events.
@@to.l.2469 Well said.
I think design "solutions" like these also are indicative of a larger societal problem: we are losing out on face-to-face interaction opportunities. Passive surveillance (i.e. people on the street, interacting in a public setting) is a function both of the design of the street itself and of the way buildings are designed and used. Places with people are much safer than without, and passive surveillance is actually much more productive from a safety perspective than installing anti-crime designs such as cameras, lights and hostile architecture features. As cities have moved more and more towards car-centric places/behaviors and we no longer walk/bike/public transit to and from our daily activities we miss out on serendipitous meetings of neighbors, friends, or strangers. We miss out on the face-to-face interactions that have historically made for connected communities. We don't check up on each other as often and public spaces therefore become not only less frequented (on a regular basis for longer periods of time), but also lose their efficacy to help protect the community. As @to.I.2469 states: it is cheaper than getting involved in the complex societal problems and their prevention. Resilient communities are not only sustained by supporting the structural facets of infrastructure, but also the human factors of what makes a "community". Unfortunately, hostile architecture pushes away those who need community the most.
In 2021 the City of são paulo decided to put Spikes under the viaducts to prevent the homeless to sleep under them. A catholic priest protested using a sledgehammer to destroy the Installations. Now hostile arquitecture is forbidden by law in the City of são paulo. The rich city of zurich had a huge problem in the 90' with drug addicts living and taking drugs openly. The City closed the hot Spot for good (letten) but also offered support and options such as a safe clean space for the addicts to take their drugs or drug replacements. Now, there are no more addicts on the same extent on the streets. There are no simple answers to complex problems. And usually, there is no silver bullet solution. When one has poor people and specially poor working people sleeping on the streets it is really time to rethink, find the root causes in order to find adequate solutions. Trying to fix the problem the "cheap" way, only fighting the symptoms and not the disease will only make urban areas less liveable for us all.
City Installations do not have to be hostile, but have to be adequate for the use.
Such a differentiated and detailed post is outstanding, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. Your conclusion matches my own opinion by 100% and deserves to be applauded.
Thank you very much. That is very kind of you.
Just in case someone's interested in the story about Zurich, there's a movie called "Platzspitzbaby" depicting the situation of drug addicts after closing down the hot spot.
@@roesi1985 This was the first hot spot, soon after Platzspitz was closed down, the scene moved to the Letten area. I think this is when the city realized merely closing down an area doesn't solve the problem. Actually helping the addicts was shown to be a more sustainable solution - what a surprise.
In Brazil this kind of archtectural response is said to be due to aporophobia which is the disgust and hostility toward poor people, those without resources or who are helpless. This term is all over the news.
Interesting topic. I’m a European (Norwegian), but for the last four years I’ve been living in Accra, Ghana. On my way to work, I’m every day passing people who has been rough sleeping under a bridge, and/or disabled, and is just hanging around to eek a living from begging. With the economy in free fall (20-40% inflation), the number of visible homeless people is increasing. Many of them I can recognise has been there for many months, some during all the four years I’ve been around here, and some probably longer, with no end to it in sight. Some of them I regularly give support, especially the disabled ones. Giving a respectful and polite greeting makes it all more friendly for everyone. Here I have not observed any physical installations anywhere preventing them from sitting or laying down to rest or sleep. The same applies to other places I’ve been living, like Luanda in Angola, Belgrade in Serbia, Colombo in Sri Lanka and Bangkok in Thailand. Been living outside Europe for the most of the last 20 years, it’s quite shocking when visiting Europe, to see more and more of these unfriendly and uninviting installations. If humanity should be measured on how we treat the weakest among us, Europe appears more and more unfriendly.
You are perfectly right mentioning Europe's inhumanity and lack of friendkiness.mI loved the friendliness of Africans when visiting Kenia...
@@AnnetteLudke-je5lldidnt know shelter where inhumane.
This is a topic that really struck me when I visited Finland. They have next to no homelessness and instead of driving those and other less fortunate groups away, in a lot of cities, they provide such an abundance of nice public spaces, that this simply doesn't matter. For example in Tampere, it was such a nice experience after walking and exploring the entire city in the summer, to just have a bench explicitly designed to lay down for a while. And they have some of the most awesome public libraries I have ever seen :O
The wooden benches at our local park were old, damaged and rotting. They were replaced. Yay! And they were long and broad and didn't have odd little arm rests. But wait... I occasionally sat on the wooden benches and was comfortable, so why do I never sit on the new benches?
Because the new benches are metal and the seat is flat, not contoured. In winter the metal is too cold, in summer too hot and the rest of the time it's wet, and in that brief weather window when it's none of these things, the flat hard surface hurts to sit on for longer than a few minutes.
Sometimes you just need to change the material, not the design.
But they commissioned a local artist to create pictures and poetry on the back, so that's nice...😒
The way most wooden benches are constructed, there's a metal skeleton, but the seats and backrests are made of wood. In such a case, the wood normally can simply be replaced, there's no need to replace the whole bench. We've had such a bench in our backyard for a long time and my mum used to replace the wooden planks when they needed it. Same for wooden benches in parks around here in the past.
Homeless people are often not the problem. They are calm and very often friendly, decent people. However, I feel safer with hostile design that keeps drug-addicted individuals away. Parks and other public spaces can become unusable for kids to play or families to picnic when there's a fear of stepping on needles. So, I understand the point of hostile design.
At the same time, I recognize that these individuals need a place to exist. Our town has seen a migration of homeless and drug-addicted people from other parts of Germany and Europe. It's complex to balance safety for our communities with the needs of those who are vulnerable and in need of support.
That seems more like the council buying a "longer laster" design rather than a hostile one given that long and flat actually suits someone sleeping more
@@daemonbyte but as someone has already said, above, almost all wooden benches in public spaces are metal framed, so to refresh them you only need to replace the wooden slats. These benches were fixable, but they elected to replace the entire thing, instead, which involved laying a new base as well. So, more work.
@@lukedogwalker Many are yes. But even those metal frames will rust as they're usually steel. I could see a salesman pitching a stainless steel or aluminium bench as cheaper in the long run with lower maintenance etc. You can dry metal as well whereas soaked wood is just wet. Not saying they are a good alternative, just that I can see a council being swayed on paper that it'd save them money long term.
There is a chain restaurant in our suburban village outside of Chicago that emits a high pitch sound that is very faint but also very annoying. I mentioned it to my family members but no one could hear it except for my teenaged son. He said it was installed to prevent teenagers from loitering. Needless to say, I don't eat there anymore.
Many of my neighbors installed such things too. It seems that mostly very young people can hear the sound. Unfortunately, my 33 year old ears seem to work too well since I too can hear it all the time. It's annoying.
@@FabiWe91 I always thaught, this things are cheap versions of marten repellents. I'm no teenager, but i here that, too.
Jack London's report about Victorian East London slum includes how the authority banned homless to fall asleep in the public space - as soon as he dozed off on a park bench or on steps to a building, police chased him off. Considering the recent minister of UK government tried to make it illegal for charities to offer tents to homeless, I'm afraid we are going past hostile design back to Victorian man-handling.
In the USA, the authorities regularly “clear out” tent cities using bulldozers and simply throwing away people’s stuff. Imagine taking all the worldly possessions of people so down on their luck that they are sleeping in tents!🤬
Where I live in Manitoba, Canada, we have severe winters. At one time we had heated bus shelters. They are all gone now to discourage homeless people from sleeping in them. It doesn’t work by the way - a woman froze to death in a bus shelter last year as they are still used by the homeless. At least they can be out of rain, wind and snow. But if it’s-40 C., you can easily freeze to death. We do now have people who go looking for the homeless to try to get them into shelters. That’s something I guess.
We have problems with homeless people who have dogs. The dogs are very well treated and lovely, but they are not allowed to join them in a shelter. They never ever would give away their dog and I totally can understand this. Although we have a good social systems, we still have homeless people in Germany.
so Canada is suffering now, no jobs, lots of crime and sick PM promoting Khalistani elements in the country to get votes.
I was at Portage and Main one windy cold February day and I never have felt anything colder. Next day was warmer and we played broom ball on the Assiniboine River. I would not want to be homeless in Winnipeg!
I'm glad that there is shelter space available in Winnipeg. Attempts to provide sufficient shelter space in much of the US is opposed by politicians afraid of being brandeed as "woke."
There was a time in my life when, due to a combination of depression, lack of partner and, well, me be being me, I was jobless AND had trouble securing social security benefits. I wasn't homeless, but I didn't want anyone to find me at home, so I wanted to be outside, in public, for free, as much as possible. In my small town, luckily, at the time, there wasn't a lot of overtly hostile design, but I sure understand the hostility of it. So thanks for bringing up this topic! The only other time I saw this covered in media before was a magazine specifically for (and supporting) the homeless community! The main points really are:
1. Hostile design doesn't make homelessness go away
2. Hostile design doesn't make crime related to homelessness go away
It just pushes both to where it isn't seen by society, relieving local and general politics off the pressure to do anything about it.
The round thing around the tree you showed is to keep people from trampling the grass, leaning bikes against the tree, parking on the grass etc. to protect the tree, since it would get damaged from too much of the above happening. It wouldn‘t work against most dogs, since small dogs can walk under the bar and big ones can jump over it.
And all dogs can use the round thing instead of the tree. 😁
As a person, who travels often by bike on holidays - I noticed that many benches at bus stops (even in small villages) are shorter than 1,5m. Makes it hard for a person to seek shelter from the rain and having a nap.
It might be that this is the current standard how to build them now. Our railway company refurbished several train stations where I live over the last years. They use all the same metal seats (no more benches) no matter if the train station is in the city or in the middle of nowhere.
These benches were constructed for the paying customers of that bus line. Why would they consider the needs of someone wanting to sleep on them? Such places have a reason why they were constructed, and they have a use then have to fullfill.
If you want to fight homelessness, make sure those who needs gets a proper shelter and don't need to use a bus stop.
Well, you're not supposed to sleep in places that are public property and are used by travellers. Why can't you pack a tent?
There was a bill introduced this year to make is it a criminal offense in my state to camp outdoors in public spaces.
Like many places...we're governed by people whose only "solutions" to problems are tax cuts and cutting government spending. Except intentionally starved housing markets to drive up the price is not something you cannot solve by austerity and tax cuts. And so they instead choose to criminalize being unhoused. Which is worse--because given how obscene housing prices are (literally everywhere) in the USA--it is very easy to work a full time job and be a 'productive member of society', and have to live in a car because your wages do not afford the required privatized housing and transportation.
We're desperate for daycare workers in the USA. Being a daycare worker only pays $15/hour. How is a daycare worker earning $15/hour going to afford $1000/month in rent or a $300,000 R1 house? How are they going to afford the $10,000/year in car ownership costs (insurance/fuel/maintenance/parking/licensure)? They're not. Which is why we have a chronic emergency shortage of daycare workers. Also senior care workers. Also bottom-rung front-line nursing staff.
As bad as the unhoused problems are--they're symptoms of the broader problems in western societies that drive all sorts of other problems. We all complain about inflation--well, most of it is housing and transportation of workers. And the housing was made expensive and NIMBY--which means more inflation
@@07Flash11MRC "We understand that you do have to carry the weight of everything you pack - all day, every day. We also understand that we're not using these at night. But you must understand that they're not meant for you" dude grow a brain. Or a heart. I'm not even partial. Either one will do
I actually feel quite stupid now. I had never realized before that there is a whole "design school" to make public spaces uncomfortable for long time use.
Thank you for enlightening on this topic.
I have a chronic illness (ME/CFS) and I, essentially, cannot go to my city's city centre aside from one street that has benches (with arm rests, of course). I can't take the bus because most bus stops just have a thin rail meant to sort of balance on more than sit.
I also can't drive and taxis get expensive, so I am essentially housebound when I may otherwise not be, in part, because of hostile architecture.
This is nothing compared to being homeless, of course.
What you describe is not nothing! It is only different. Hostile architecture works against homeless people AND it works against disabled, sick, old, young or in other ways weak people. It is good to hear every story, to open our eyes. Thank you for telling.
Even if driving away homeless people from public spaces _was_ a good thing that benefits society at large, which it certainly is not, _hostile architecture is hostile to _*_everyone._* How exactly is _anyone_ benefiting from public spaces becoming less comfortable and accessible?
They benefit by being able to use the imperfect hostile bench instead of it being occupied nearly 24/7 by people sleeping on it. The ideas presented in this video and the comments seem really naive. Put a bunch of hostile infrastructure in a city and you have a bunch of less desirable public spaces that aren’t great for any users and you are trying to sweep your problems under the rug. I think that is a fair and sad statement. Don’t put them in and spend even a ton of money on homeless services and you get…. A lore more homeless people flocking to your city. Also a true and sad statement.
I lived in the homeless service district of Portland Oregon and I was ok with this at first but as policy swung harder and farther left, what started out as lines a few times a day for the soup kitchen became people tent camping on the sidewalk, trying to slip into the condo complex secure car park and people peeing and pooping in the doorways and stoops. We also had actual first hand personal safety issues with people blocking paths and attempting to intimidate us (and others) as we tried to get around the city.
Are people really so ideologically committed to making sure we are all painfully aware of society’s failings that we want almost every park and public space to be used almost exclusively by the homeless? A lot of urban freeways are argued to be bad uses of space and hostile also. Should people build a house in the middle of a freeway interchange to make it obvious to themselves every day how horrible those spaces are?
Also, regarding the idea that 400 million dollars would go a long ways towards ending homelessness…. NYC alone spends 3 Billions dollars a year on homeless services. So yeah, half a billion dollars isn’t going to have any effect on ‘fixing’ homelessness. I would truly love to have an answer for homelessness, especially in the US. Even an expensive answer. But so far, every big city has tried and some have truly committed to it as a decades long effort but it isn’t clear that ANY strategy tried yet can do more than take 5% of the eligible people and, very unsustainably put them into hotel rooms or dedicated long term shelters. Or in other words, a different, fancier way of taking people and hiding them away.
If people do not even notice these how is it hostile then?
@@chrisransdell8110 You don't keep the homeless away with this stuff. Instead of sleeping on benches--they'll sleep on the sidewalk in front of businesses. We see it here. Being needlessly cruel to people solves nothing and doesn't even make anyone feel better. Especially when due to obscene housing costs--you can work a full time job and still be unable to afford housing. Here in the USA it is happening everywhere.
The resort town of Sedona, Arizona made the news--because the workers that make the place desirable as a tourist trap cannot afford the million-dollar valuations of housing. The Council made it legal for workers to sleep in their cars in designated parking lots. And even that measure--as cruel and laughable as it is--is being fought tooth and nail by NIMBY locals. These are people who are employed in and making the place desirable--and they are homeless, and economically forbade from housing. Not all unhoused are 'bums' or drug addicts and none deserve to be written off.
@@chrisransdell8110 that's actually a really prevalent myth that if you invest in homeless services, homeless from elsewhere will flock there.
In Seattle: A 2018 survey of people experiencing homelessness in the City of Seattle/King County showed: Approximately 83% were living locally when they lost housing. 11% lived in another Washington county before a loss of housing. 6% were residing out of state.
In NYC: According to 2015 data, families entering shelters predominantly came from a few clustered zip codes in the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. The organization states families moving into shelters who previously resided outside NYC have remained a tiny fraction of the total number of families coming into shelters. They account for less than one-half of one percent of all families moving into shelters. Additionally, many families categorized as "out of town" are, in fact, native New Yorkers. The latter have lost their housing in neighboring communities such as New Jersey or Long Island.
A 2019 homeless count among unsheltered adults and children in adult families living in the Greater Los Angeles area showed: 64.9% lived in Los Angeles County when they lost housing. 15.1% lived in another California county. 18.8% lived out of state.
Also in Finland they are actually saving money by giving housing to the homeless. They still have homelessness but it's decreasing while it's increasing basically everywhere else.
In Aschheim in Bavaria, the town council has built a children's playground for the sole purpose of preventing the nearby cannabis club from selling its cannabis at its location. That really is a whole new level. 🤯
Oh a good idea!...and no, that's not sarcasm.
@@kiliipower355🤦
Generally. The fact that Deutsche Bahn IMMEDIATELY forbade mariuhana use. But their own staff is smoking on the platform, nobody is caring about those yellow lines on the floor either. Imagine how nice the air would bee and how clean the floors at the trainstation without all the tabacco addicts enacting their "freedom". You have drunk people in your trains, and even alcohol laden "party" trains, making your prolonged wait at the station as terrible as posssible. But, oh no! Mariuhana. That needs to be strictly forbidden.
drug use and eventual abuse is the main cause of homelessness in developed nations….
@@Freaky0Nina and then Deutsche Bahn is wondering why almost only people who have no other choice use them. If you're staying at your destination more than a few days or have to bring a bit more stuff for other reasons, bad idea. If you don't just travel from city center to city center, bad idea.
Last time I took the train, the way to the destination was pleasant. The way back? Horrible. I could claim it was partially my fault but it was Deutsche Bahn's fault for pushing unpleasant into horrible. I went on a training for a week but extended the trip by taking a detour to visit relatives living near the training location (50 km, 2 stops with an IC, no problem). Return trip would have been IC-ICE-RE-Bus, with a big suitcase and two backpacks a bit unpleasant but ok.
Reality: IC was cancelled, please find another connection yourself! Packed RE, change to another packed RE, finally get to the station where the ICE starts, well, nope, the one I get takes me only partway, I have to change to another ICE, then instead of 10 Minute RE ride a 1 hour ride in a packed RE, then Bus. Turned a 5 hour trip into an 8h one, including spending quite a bit of time on "defensively designed" platforms.
Result: not taking the train if I can avoid it. And that's not including risks of strikes etc...
It is a way to solving the issue by removing the symptoms instead of fixing the causes. Something like - you don't want to have a fever, then break the thermometer.
Indeed and fixing of the problem would be to put people unable to manage their life under guardianship and force them to stay in state provided accommodation if they are not cooperating.
Except it doesn't actually 'solve' anything. Hostile Design is to homelessness, what a piece of black tape over your Check Engine Light is in your car dashboard. Nothing is solved, in fact the problem is getting worse the longer it goes unaddressed.
@@freebozkurt9277 It's an excellent idea of yours, and indeed - what *other* solution(s) can there be?!
You first.
@@ZeroGravitas187 that's what I said.
@@freebozkurt9277Oppose individual liberty much?
Such a good video and such an important topic! I don’t think people realise just how close so many of us are to homelessness. So many of us are just one tragedy away. We should be looking after one another better than we are. This sort of hostile architecture discriminates against disabled people too, who need more to be there and be comfortable.
In Norway or Finnland the Goverment built Appartements for them.
I have to use crutches and I would love to have a very nice bench to sit and take a rest.
I have also noticed that they want to make the city very uncomfortable. If you sit on a nice bench it also is nice to start a quick talk with a stranger.
( noboody realy knows how to let the homeless people be a part of the Société.) I know that in Berlin you have the Cafés where you can warm up ,maybe get a meal and New cloths maybe take a shower)
Maybe they want to keep certain people out of the pulicity.
But since I myself use crutches to walk I am happy when I can take a rest on a bank.
Maybe it is a good Idea to join into politiks so you can say what you think about the things you dont like.
I realy liked the topic you chose this week many greetings Christiane 😊😊😊
I have a similar problem, can do everything by bicycle, but need a decent bench every half hour, to rest my legs for a few minutes. Many public benches are removed in my city. And we do not have a homeless problem! The city wants to prevent young people to hang around where you can sit. Or groups of elderly to gather. Even kids play grounds are removed, everyone is forced to be at home and indoors.
Walking in the park all benches are occupied, six people sit on a bench for four, where once three benches were in a row, only one remained. I have to ask people to please give me thirty centimeters because I am in pain and have to sit.
people in Norway and Finland don't start a quick talk with a stranger. 😆
Oh gosh yes, they're everywhere! And it's honestly heartbreaking because you see the change, you have a nirmal bench and then bim, a new less comfortable one is installed, and if you can't figure out why that happened you're living in another world! And it's crazy that we'd rather waste money making life more uncomfortable for EVERYONE, rather than spend money on helping people get out of the bad situation they're in!Because let's be serious if it's more uncomfortable for a homeless person to sleep on it's also more uncomfortable for a regular family to sit together/a pregnant woman/a mother with infant/a traveller with a big pack etc etc etc.
The leaning benches are something I’ve noticed because they are very uncomfortable for a tall person like me because I’m too tall to lean on them and you can’t sit on them. But society should address the causes of homelessness rather than trying to pretend it’s not a problem by making hostile environments to keep them out of sight.
Don't blame society. If you have a better solution, we're all ears.
@@jps101574 Build housing that people can afford. I live in Oregon and volunteer at a group that provides veterinary care for pets of homeless people. Most of the people we serve work. Many work full time. They can't afford housing. It is hard to work while homeless, but they do it. I doubt that I could.
I think the benches are pretty much everywhere. Not aware of a lot of spiky things in Vienna, though.
I think the problem is, that any city that treats homeless people with dignity becomes a destination for homeless people from elsewhere. And public support for solving problems goes down if the problems are imported. If cities were reimbursed from the national government (or even the EU) for the cost of housing homeless people, they wouldn't try to push their problem elsewhere as much.
I'm an ambulatory wheelchair user without my own wheelchair. (My first custom titanium wheelchair is arriving in about 8 weeks!). For the past several years I've been navigating life in mid-town and downtown Toronto, Canada without a wheelchair. When I stand my blood pressure drops, I get dizzy, and lots of other bad things happen. The fastest way to recover is to sit with my legs out in front of me. Hostile benches make that impossible - which means I've had to sit on the ground numerous times.
Recently my neighbourhood (Yonge and Eglinton) replaced the older benches with the arm rest in the middle to colourful slightly longer benches without an arm rest in the middle. I can sit down comfortably. It makes life easier. I've seen more people just having conversations on the new benches than the old because they can turn to face each other.
A lack of comfortable seating is a huge accessibility issue. I have a mental maps of parts of Toronto I go to of where any sort of seating I can use is. This includes one side street with level topped thick bollards. It's great. I have a "seat" every few meters. While there are seats in the subway stations here, there's not enough.
A few weeks ago a train I was on went out of service. So we all had to get off on the platform. I had to sit on the concrete outdoor platform because there weren't any seats.
PS It's ok to be disabled, It's not a bad word. You don't have to say you're sorry for me. ... Unless it's about the lack of accessibility.
This is not just directed at homeless people but in my area just south of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, In most parks around the city, benches are completely removed as are any other structures that could facilitate the local youth to come together and hang out. The cause for this was partly understandable these groups of youths did in a number of cases caused significant discomfort for people living around them by playing loud music, talking loud, yelling and sometimes even destroying park benches structures, some were directly pestering people. But the result is that a lot of places where I could take a rest (hearth patient with back problems) are gone. And now taking a walk in my own suburb has become almost impossible for me.
Thanks for addressing this topic! I whish I could give ten thumb-ups!
Excellent analysis as usual. I so enjoy my Sunday morning coffee with Type Ashton.
I have absolutely seen this trend growing in my city of Chicago. Bus stops without benches, ridiculous "sculptural" elements that are supposed to be seating, spiked ground under bridges. Just awful. Design to make living rough exponentially worse. It is sociopathic and as someone who is somewhat disabled not having the occasional place to rest on a walk means I don't walk. Why do our modern lives suck more every year? Here's one reason.
Thanks again Ashton. Short but very informative & leaves us thinking. Take care.
I am a big fan of the approach that Finnland had on this problem. While in most countries the homeless have to show some efforts first (e. g. stop drinking) before the society starts to help them in Finland they had a program that was called "Housing first" that provided housing to all homeless and then started to deal with the other problems.
As far as I am informed it was very successful and the number of homeless in Finland declined drastically.
Yes, but you are giving "those type of people" things for free. Many (especially in the US) cannot stand that. It's one of those religious things. If you look like that, you deserve it, you must have done somethign to upset God!
Hello Ashton, thanks for your video. I had no idea about some of these hostile architecture designs and its purpose. I know we have street bollards in the city, and yes the seats at train stations and bus stops are cold, uncomfortable metal structures. After a quick google apparently we do have many of these designs in Melbourne. We also have many well designed suburban skate parks and adventure parks, so there is some balance in that regard. In some areas homelessness seems to be growing faster than support services . It’s very worrying to know people’s circumstances can change so rapidly in this day and age.
Thank you for shining the light on yet another important social topic.
Thank you for putting this out.. I never noticed, I will keep my eyes open
with the recent floodings in Germany I was stuck at several train stations over night on several occasions.... You don't have to be homeless to be stuck in a public space for a prolonged period. Sometimes losing your wallet and phone or simply the weather are enough to get you stuck and in need of help.
In Hungary, since 2018, it is by law forbidden to be homeless, and to sleep on the streets. Reaction: Many Homeless people came to Vienna, were there is no such law. Most of the homeless people in Austria are not Austrians, but from the eastern Europe countries. And that makes the whole situation worse.
Thank you for this video.
I first came across this concept of "hostile architecture" in a book by the American sociologist Mike Davis, "City of Quartz".
I read the book about thirty years ago. And of course my thoughts were something like: "Those crazy Americans again".
Since then, hostile architecture has become more and more common and prevalent in German cities.
Very unfriendly not only towards the homeless, but also those who need to sit down from time to time, like aging people.
Public space should be public.
excellent video and very good points, as usual!
View from the UK, definitely when the local council a few years ago spent £25,000 on a new bench (art piece) of a new public square people complained it wasn’t comfortable (didn’t think much about it as it was sold as “art”). Taking photographs of models in London, on a bench lots of us were questioning why the bench was not flat, Model was a professional to coped with the issue, but now we know. Of course I have seen this in Vancouver back in 2019 didn’t think much about it.
I have a foot prosthetic. I have resorted to sitting in some really uncomfortable and dirty places simply because I need to take the weight off my feet. I wish policy makers could walk around with a sharp rock in their shoe to try and get an inkling of what it’s like for me. And I’m not even THAT disabled. I noticed it really badly when I had to commute on the bus and train into the city. The shelters here also have adopted “leaning bars” instead of benches and after a long day on my feet, my feet hurt so bad I’ve been forced to sit on the dirty or wet pavement.😢
Great and interesting topic, thanks for bringing it up!!
It's interesting who is seen as an "enemy" we need protection for. Some towns use ultra sound at some places to protect them against young people.
(There has been a great episode of zdf magazin royal about this topic.)
I'm almost 40 but I still can hear those high pitched sounds.
We had a neighbour who installed a "Marderschreck" device in his car. Which kept me awake at night.
It's the same concept, but it's used to keep animals away from your vehicle.
@@begone2753 yeah, there's one such device in a garden of a neighbor further down my street, so luckily not in hearing range, but every time I drive past it I hear it.
@@begone2753 I am older than 40 and one in 20 cars makes peeping sounds for me. Some of them really loud, if it would park in front of my room I could also not sleep at night.
Excellent points, thanks. I was completely unaware ❤
Very interesting, and I never heard of it before. Thank you for this video!
Dear Ashton, thank you again for this well researched, well thought through and again high quality produced video.
I´m from Austria and I´m aware of the fact that there are homeless people here especially in my hometown Vienna (2 million inhabitants). I think it´s worth to think about the interests of at least two sides: 1.) If you declare a puplic space public, you also try to avoid (damaging or selfish intended) misuse. On the other hand 2.) "public" means in my opinion "open for the needs of all".
In Austria camping and living in public places is simply forbidden. But this law only works, if there is a social network, catching you up when you have problems. But homelessnes is, as far as I experienced it, very subtile and some people rather make the choice to live independent outsinde than being forced to stay at a social wellfare home.
There are 2 topics I missed to be elaborated more deeply in your perfect video: 1.) The (mostly intended by private money driven interests) privatisation of public places which, after the US development, also takes place in Europe. and 2.) The hostile architecture solutian(s) which forces everyone to consume.
After some years in Europe you might have recognised, at least that´s what I understood seeing nearly all of your videos, that "public places" in Europe comes with a lot more laws and regulations (except the right to drink alcohol in public and showing your boobs or naked children) on the other hand communities - the circle of legal responsibility radius has no influence in this concern - offer a lot more "free" oportunities for the public than in an average US community.
As "take home message" having seen your video for me stays: Let the people decide, how they wanna use public places. And: public places are soooo important for a functional democracy and the understanding of "we are the people".
Thank you Ashton!
Simple question: There is a bus stop used by several hundreds of people every day. It has a bench, where those people should be able to sit while the wait. I am getting older and like to sit down. What is more important, have those seats available for the intended users or for one homeless person to make there home there?
More important for the homeless people and not people like you who are NOT homeless!!!
The crime of "loitering" was invented in the US in the 19th century to create a ready pretense to arrest newly free black men and effectively return them to slavery. That always comes to mind when people say they're designing things to reduce crime. What specific crimes?
Thank you Ashton. Good topic!
The individual armrests aren't there to prevent from laying down. The are installed to help older people to get up, cause they often have trouble doing it themselves without them. I often hear this false assumption. I wont deny about the other design choices. But the armrests really are there for another reason.
Actually, yes, you are right BUT many new benches are designed after the fact to prevent people from lying down, however, in good designs, some are new benches, or old long ones get "upgraded" where there will be at least one "armrest" to help older people get up. In the video one sees the good design where there is a long bench, two people can sit next to each other on one side with and arm rest in between, and two people on the other side, so no matter where you sit, there is an armrest to help you up. Preferred material is wood. Worst is metal.
Thanks Ashton for also taking on this critical topic.
Glad you enjoyed the video. ❤️
@@TypeAshton Enjoying might not be what I did 😉, but appreciating for opening my eyes more and giving context. And a little more knowledge and context makes all the difference.
Yes, thank you for shedding an empathetic light on this.
I also think most people have no idea how difficult it has systematically been made to get help before it gets to be a crisis or once in crisis how difficult the paperwork is. Just asking for help in the U.S. and keeping it can in alot of cases meant to humiliating and degrading. It is also is designed to keep people in a cycle of poverty. I don't work for any agency, but I have been helping veterans and others navigate systems that set up to be difficult to navigate for overc2 decades. Most are purposely set up as overly complex, personally invasive, and dehumanizing as a deterrent from requesting or receiving aid. From require all medical records, to writing essays why they are worthy, to folks having to apologize to aid workers for the aid workers mistakes and so many more. It makes me nauseated to think about it. This needs to change
A very important, but often overseen, topic. Thanks for this feature!
Very important observations - thank you. Getting elder and loosing mobility, I notice that more often I may prefer to stay at home than enter the public sphere and connect spontaneously. Fewer places to sit, rest, interact have become prevalent. One is made to feel ... not "fit for purpose", not welcome. And help and support for those who really need it is less than a stone's throw away from that.
Was just binge watching your videos and then this dropped - it's a good weekend 😌
Hope you enjoyed it!
@@TypeAshton The City of York banned ♿ parking around York Minster because of "terrorism". 🤦
Thank you for spotlighting these features, for which I have seen more and more of my local tax dollars go to pay. As a senior, I now carry a collapsible seat if I go on a long walk and think I might want a rest. In a system where rental history and credit checks define who gets and who does not get approved to rent a dwelling, I expect to see the homeless problem to become even more distressing.
In Amsterdam some of the anti-lay down benches were changed by love friendly benches. By the way hardly ever somebody sleeps on them.
nice anecdote. i can assure you the outcome would not be the same in any major american city.
There are cultures where it is normal for people to take a nap in public. Imagine the level of safety they must feel. Not worrying about being robbed. I live in a very precarious area in Dortmund. When it's only groups of man drinking outside on the street, I sure as hell wont go out after dark. If the area is friendly enough for everyone to be out, then I'd be out as well.
Interesting & well-done video on important topic.
Honestly I used to go out and hang out at different places either to work or to talk with friends but now I just stay at home, I work from home and my friends gather at homes and we don't get out and socialize anymore. Are societies making it ever easier to do that and have a harder to do otherwise. I myself am trying to save up for retirement and to think that every time I want to go hang out in a coffee shop I have to spend seven or eight dollars on a coffee is just a deterrent.
What a great video again, Ashton!! ❤️
It is a tragedy indeed and so necessary that someone put the focus on it. Thank you for this high quality video again.
I think this is s good compromise. In my city almost all seats have been removed from our train stations. Now no one can complain about "uncomfortable" seating because there is none. Be careful what you wish for.
There is also hidden, indirect hostile architecture.
Take a look around and see where blue lighting is used, especially around department stores and their backyards. At dusk, blue light is switched on so that you can no longer see the veins in order to pierce a syringe.
Exciting and entertaining "Sunday school" @Type Ashton
Dann kann ich hoffen, dass es dir gut geht? Nicht zu viel Wasser, draußen?
Great video! I've been watching lots of videos on this lately...I've known about it for quite some time...from videos...and from being a street artist who has slept on the streets a bit. The interest was rekindled when I was in a part of town where they were using this high pitched sound to deter the homeless...there's still lots of homelessness, drug use, extreme poverty, even feces in the streets...
It isn't just the architecture and the sounds though...but actively silencing positivity too. I create with sidewalk chalk nowadays. The city kept pressure washing away my chalk art...meanwhile I know of dirty bus stops...so I start chalking up the dirty bus stops...they either leave my art alone...or they clean up the filth they've been neglected.
That lead to getting wrongfully detained and given a criminal mischief ticket that I'll be fighting before a jury July 10th, also was arrested for chalk in a since dismissed case, and last month cursed at and threatened with arrest...all for chalk...happy positive quotes, geometry (free hand circles) and pretty colors.
So...they also use the police to shut down positive contributions as well...I've spoke about it at City Hall multiple times now...but next time I speak I will address how the city spends money, time, and effort making the public less comfortable and try to connect it to what I do.
Thanks for covering this
It's certainly an interesting video. I can say that I don't really feel this at my home town, because I'm usually too busy with work/kids/etc. to go places. But as a tourist it's always noticeable, as you tend to walk quite a bit, and would like to rest occasionally, not to mention find a public toilet. :D Oh, and a place to sit in a clothing store...
dystopia is already here, it's just not evenly distributed yet
I just moved from Northern California to Strasbourg France 4 months ago. This is a beautiful city but one of the things I noticed is it seems to be in decline. Quite a few homeless and folks old and young begging for money. Homeless camps along the toll roads too. Also the lack of public benches along the river and around the city is puzzling. For the most part, if you want to sit along the river and have lunch on a beautiful day, you need to sit on the concrete walkway. A bit difficult if you are older or have ailments. I found this puzzling and thought why wouldn't they want people to be comfortable and enjoy the beauty of their city? My thought was because of the homeless. This was my first taste of continental Europe and I'm quite surprised because of the social safety net here. I thought everyone was protected? I visited your beautiful city about 1 month ago. It was very crowded as it was a beautiful day. I sat quite a bit on my 16k step journey walking about the town including the bench in the Karstadt you pictured. But also noticed not alot of options to sit. Thank you for a very thought provoking video as always!
Great video
We observed this in Amsterdam last month - we picked up food from a “grab & go” restaurant… but were unable to find a simple bench to sit and eat the food! We walked for 40 minutes before sitting on the ground to eat our food.
Very interesting, video. In the UK they also pipe unpallatable sound / music. I read somewhere they can even tune this in for certain age groups.
Oh man, seriously? I have heard of the use of white noise, but that sounds really cruel.
Essentially, the human hearing tends to lose frequency range on the upper end of the spectrum. So they play very high pitched noises, to keep youth from loitering.
Still, had a case of some youth using the sheltered area at a private parking garage to smoke their marihuana and drink their alkohol. Trouble was, they didn't manage to refrain, from urinating and throwing up all the time. As well as littering. Some Warning later, they got themselves trespassed.
Over here in Switzerland it's almost impossible to be homeless unless you refuse a roof over you head. Most that refuse, do so, because they refuse to follow the rules. (clean, don't be noisy at night, try to get help...).
It may be, that they do have psychological troubles and more, but that people are not allowed to loiter in some places mostly comes down, to them being extremely inconsiderate about the needs of everyone else. (noise / trash / impeding passage of customer).
Still, public parks generally don't have hostile architecture. bridges etc. rarely have anything installed to prevent people from camping under them. I slept many times simply in a city park, waiting for public transport to resume the next day, when i was younger. Never got harrassed.
@@TypeAshtonIn some spaces in the Netherlands they play classical music to stop teenagers hanging out there.
Thank you for making this video! I have mobility problems, so even though these measures may not be aimed directly at me, I feel the effects of them every time I'm out. Those leaning benches at bus stops that I can barely use. Tiny seats at uncomfortable angles. I cannot imagine what is going through someone's mind when they commission or design these awful things. I wonder how these people live with themselves, knowing that their work is actively hurting people.
Deine Videos sind immer so professionell gemacht. Wirklich super!
I have collected a dossier on these examples in Dublin. What's even worse that the local council are commissioning ARTISTS to create these hostile benches. They are taking from the community fund to perform this exclusion. Disgusting.
There is a serious discussion that is on going in the architecture world too as to the ethics of such designs. Many firms outright refuse to create designs that are intended to cause discomfort or pain because it is a human rights violation.
Love this video.
Bright light in pedestrian tunnels is there to mainly make it safer for women.
Make it safer for people. Yes, women are more often a target, but men get attacked too...
How does bright light make a tunnel safer, pray tell?
You may feel safer, but if you're honest, you're not unsafe in the dark either. That's why we talk about places of fear, but the real danger lurks elsewhere.
But the mere fact that such places cause fear should be enough to avoid them, even if it disrupts traffic.
In the Netherlands we saw a rapid increase of this hostile architecture since the 1980s . But now the local government sees the problems you spoke of. The city becoming hostile to all people. So now they are taking those benches away again. In Amsterdam and other big cities they are removing them. Thanks for your video. Well made, nuanced, presented calmly. Great stuff Bravo
Excellent video, thank you. You're right. It's cruel.
Very important video for the times. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it.
Such an excellent video, with so much research and explanation.
There is a similar attitude towards people sleeping in cars and vans; who many residents see as undesirable.
They lock the public car parks at night and regularly move on people sleeping in their cars or vans.
I live in Wien and have seen those structures pop up in many of the same type of places on which you reported. Sometimes they get removed and something more conducive to human comfort goes in. However, they still keep a mix of both within eye-shot of each other. In my neighborhood, we have lots of areas/plazas with big long wooden benches in parks and along streets and I find people out on them, when I walk my dog at all hours of the night and day, sitting around and chatting with each other. On the other hand, in the winter, if you find a homeless person somewhere that looks like they are cold, there is a number to call to get them assistance, by getting them a blanket (if that is all they need) or shelter, but overall, I rarely see homeless, except for what appears to be itinerants, probably because there is such a huge social net here.
Never really thought about it. Kind of sad that some feel it necessary. Excellent content as usual thank you!😂
One place where I personally noticed it is in the main halls of train stations, where benches were either removed or in newer stations where they didn't even plan for seating.
Thank you for raising this uncomfortable issue as I see hostile architecture everywhere I look in my part of the world. I am actually outraged that as a society, we seem to have unlimited funds for wars and so many other wasteful endeavours, but never enough money to house, feed, educate, and provide medical care for everyone. I’m disgusted by how dystopian we are when it comes to our priorities. Thank you for your very articulate and thoughtful review of this issue.
I am fortunate not live in a city or large town. You have inspired me to take my camera and take a fresh look around my local towns.
Spot on !!! Public spaces should be available to everybody also the less fortunates in society. These "defensive designs" are only an indication that society ought to give better care for those vulnarable people.
Depending on the city, in the US, it costs a city anywhere from $15,000 to $70,000 per homeless person per year to pay for all the emergency services, policing, city maintenance etc. the whole idea of “housing first” which was pioneered in Salt Lake City decades ago was that it costs way less to just give people homes. Sadly, the US has abandoned the housing first approach, but we’ve seen how effective it’s been in Finland as well as a few other places internationally. Imagine if someone said they were hungry, and you offered them a foot rub instead of actual food or money? That’s what the “housing” policy in the USA is right now. And then we waste money on benches!
I read a magazine article, can't remember which mag, that described the design principles in fast food restaurant surroundings. Hard seats, straight up seat backs, close to you and low table tops, bright lights and energetic colors, all working together to get you to eat your food as fast as possible....and get the hell out of there
Here in Sweden the hostile arcitecture has long since entered cafés as well. Finding a place where you can sit comfortably and enjoy a rest with your coffee has become a nightmare. I feel most places prefer you'd take your coffee to go, so they wont have to take time and energy to wash your cup and wipe some crumbs. Soft seating is long gone and partly due to that the noise levels have gone up, so sitting there for more than half an hour gives you a headache. If you manage to find a reasonably quiet place it's full of people working on their laptops. I think society in general is going more and more toward being hostile to humans.
I wish they planted trees instead of spending money on these anti-human contraptions. Who owns the companies that make these?
Your videos are exellent quality!
Thank you very much!
Exceptional video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
When I went for a long walk in the countryside, I was happy when I found benches along the way to take a quick rest.
Prepared by the Heimatverein (local association).
That has been ongoing for decades now, in France it started in the paris metro, where homeless used to go for warmth in winter, when all of the benches had a 30% incline and separators.
It's becoming increasingly more and more common for sure. Just makes you think, what if those funds for new benches were funneled towards helping them?
@@TypeAshton Don't get your point. This money is not taken from the general social system funds.
@@markus9459 they are an investment into something that helps no one and is actively designed to hurt the most marginalized and vulnerable in society... it doesnt matter where the money for that stuff came from - it would be better used helping those people
but for those implementing these measures... cruelty is the point - they dont want the problem solved... they need these people as a threat to the rest of the population: dont try to change things, or you might end up like THEM
@@SharienGaming The working society pays tax for such public spaces and thus can also expect that they can use it. In most western EU countries, nobody would have to live on the streets because of the generous welfare system.
@@markus9459 excuse me, but thats not how taxes work - taxes are the community pooling resources to build and maintain things that individuals couldnt or shouldnt have to
they are not "you buy something" they are your contribution to society - the poor and homeless are PART of society, not seperate from them - they are a huge part of who that tax money is specifically FOR - those in society who can not support themselves without help
you want to actively exclude people from society - to other them and keep them away... thats incredibly dehumanizing
and generous welfare system? maybe compared to the US, but its been severely hollowed out over the last couple decades
and plenty of people fall through the cracks... thats where many homeless come from - people that fell through the systems and cant get back in
but hey... no your problem right? why would you care about people suffering? if they do they better do it out of your sight, so they dont offend you right?
...thank you so much for dealing with this topic. Maybe we should go out and flag hostile architecture as an social art project in reality!
It is a "comfortable" "solution" - in the sense of "lazy" - for public administrations. And the wealthier citizens are allowed to ignore homelessness and other social problems - and those citizens have generally the say in any municipality. But this kind of "defensive" (or rather "offensive") architecture does not solve anything except for hiding a part of some problems. We could use the tax money far better by looking in real solutions and offerings.
Some places use even ultrasound devices to drive away juveniles who are still able to hear the tones at least unconsciously (while adults lost that ability). In my hometown those devices were removed after protests years ago, but in some cities in Germany they are still in use, e.g in Freiburg/Neckar at night at a primary school. According to some otologists those devices can cause tinnitus - not only with younger people - and could therefore be classified as the criminal offense of bodily injury.
0:11: Seepark. I haven't been there for almost 20 years. During my study time, I loved to walk around the lake in warm summer nights.
I remember when I was a kid, my hometown had multiple public toilets that were always clean and always open. At some point in time vandalism started. The toilets were repeatedly smeared and damaged. Again and again. The city reacted and converted the toilets into stainless steel toilets - for a lot of money. This places has now also been made "storm-proof" and are mostly locked.
Furthermore, for a long time there were only comfortable wooden park benches in my city, always with a trash can next to it. At some point, however, it began that these were regularly destroyed. The garbage was either dumped into the parks and streets or set on fire (or huge amounts of household waste was disposed off there), and so at some point the benches were removed or replaced by metal benches. You will hardly find public garbage bins anymore.
I can also remember public halls with showers for warming up that used to exist and are now closed because they became more and more "war-zone"-like.
What I'm trying to say is that it's not just the cities and communes that are to blame, our community has also changed.
At some point in the 80s, community values were deliberately damaged more and more and instead of fighting back, people accepted it and fought it passive-aggressively. We see the result today.
The solution? Fight the causes and demand decency instead of granting "exaggerated" tolerance (yes, I think that exists too).
I Live in Hamburg, and it has become super hard to find a bench in the city, most of them were taken away so you are forced to spend money in a cafe or restaurant if you want to sit down. However, they seem to install more benches in newer public spaces.
I love the ominous music 😁
I‘d rather find a bench to sit on than one blocked by a sleeper. These armrests ensure that the bench is used for the intended purpose, that’s all. Nothing „hostile“ about it.
People love to forget that homeless people are humans with rights
Btw I agree with you 💯 well said. Great video.
Thank you for this excellent view. How poorly it reflects on us as a society 😢
Thank you for addressing this topic!
"Hostile architecture" may be a smaller scale of building walls around estates or towns or along borders. Those on one side may enjoy those walls or that architecture, those on the opposite side may hate them.
Their ultimate message may well be "We don't want to communicate [with others] [anymore]". That message may well stem from anger, but maybe from embarrassment. Embarrassment that the sender of the message has been unable to solve the problem.
There is this French expression "cordon sanitaire" that I (from the Netherlands) know from Belgian politics. I could assume some embarrassment in feeling unable to cooperate with people that have a different view on certain important matters but may well share your view on other matters.
Isn't there (at least) one story in "Arabian nights" about a wealthy person losing everything after treating a beggar improperly? Like a message included in this video: "Today it's me. It could be you tomorrow." (or similar)
Me, I'd be on the embarrassed side. I'd like everybody (that wants one) to have a home. And health (mental and physical, including good food) and happiness. I trust the authorities of my home town (Amsterdam) to share both the goal and the embarrassment in failing to achieve it. I have seen the hostile architecture advance here.
I have also noticed the phasing out of public toilets here. In a funny way that brings men here closer to the fate of women, as those toilets tend to be urinals for men. Are women still supposed not to be out?
The truly sad thing is that the base issue of homelessness is very complicated, and we as a society have not gotten any better at solving _simple_ problems, nevermind complex ones. I live in the U.S. and while this issue doesn't affect me so much (I live in a very rural area), it's frustrating to see people just flail away, spending more time laying on blame than actually making moves to solve the problems.