Cara Chellew?s defensiveTO website documents urban interventions that restrict behaviour, defending spaces against unwanted occupation by skateboarders and unhoused people. Such architecture ?also makes the city more hostile for other vulnerable residents,? writes Chellew.
Recently, a bench I?d barely noticed on countless walks past acquired an eye-catching sticker labeling it a DESIGN CRIME. ?This item is a design against humanity,? the small print under the blaring red letters declared. ?It has been added to the international database of Hostile Design.? The bench, on an easement alongside a seniors? residence, was a backless chunk of concrete with a central armrest. British artist Stuart Semple set up the website HostileDesign.org to highlight the global proliferation of benches you can?t lie down on, ledges with anti-sitting spikes or anti-skateboarding protrusions, and other design features sending the message that certain groups?most often the unhoused, or youth?are unwelcome to linger. He sells DESIGN CRIME sticker sheets and also gives them away to those who can only afford the postage. Photo by Cara Chellew
Cara Chellew, formerly based in Toronto and now pursuing a Ph.D. in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design at McGill University in Montreal, is a public space advocate and researcher in the field of hostile design, which is also called defensive design or defensive urbanism. The map on her defensiveTO.com site documents public realm spaces and privately owned public...