Hostile architecture: The bench with a metal divider, the metal spikes poking through the concrete, the slanted roof of the shelter that lets the rain in. These aren’t harmless design quirks – they are sending a message.
You don’t belong here.
Hostile architecture is where design is not used to serve the public, but to filter it. It is capitalism’s cruel attempt to hide away visual evidence of poverty and the people it has failed.
If you are homeless and not consuming – the city doesn’t want you in it. And it will design you out. An ideology in concrete and steel.
Mathew Turtle, co-founder and director of the Museum of Homelessness in Finsbury Park said:
“Hostile architecture is just the latest manifestation of the values of a society where people face regular challenges and stigma.
“In our work around trauma and dehumanisation we have worked closely with a social cognition expert called Dr Lasana Harris. Lasana’s neuroscientific research has highlighted how brain regions associated with reasoning, discernment and humanisation are often not active when individuals react with individuals who are perceived to be in an ‘outgroup.’”
We don’t call them people experiencing homelessness. We call them “the homeless” – a label that strips away identity and piles on stigma. In that one word, they become less than human.
People who are homeless do not opt out of society – they are pushed out of it. In a system that only values workers, buyers and owners, if you don’t produce or consume, you become invisible. Disposable. An outsider.
For many of us, we don’t even notice it. We move through our cities freely without realising how many barriers have been put up for those who can’t.
Take public toilets for example – they’re often paywalled. For someone with no cash, no bank card and nowhere else to go, a locked loo isn’t an inconvenience but a barrier to basic dignity.
The welcome must be bigger than the rules
So what’s the alternative?
Matt says: “We need to build communities again, and not services. People need to connect with each other in real-time because we are truly facing a crisis of compassion in society. We need to side-step disinformation networks and get together to truly understand each other if we’re to make sense of this world we all share because what we get through our filter bubbles on social media won’t cut it.”
This is what the Museum of Homelessness is doing.
Image credit: Lucinda Macpherson
According to Shelter, at least 354,000 people are homeless in the UK. The housing crisis is pushing more and more people out on the street each year.
“Solving this requires a mix of regulation, council resources, smart design choices and most importantly recognising that design is one part of making more inclusive spaces.
“We have to create spaces in society where the “welcome is bigger than the rules”, this is a quote from the Revd Richard Carter who is a vicar at St-Martin-in-the-Fields.
“Comparing the idea of “the welcome” to the idea of the rules helps us think about what we prioritise in public spaces – care, love and community building – as opposed to rule based ways which are often about enforcement, criminalisation and exclusion.”
See it? Call it out.
Hostile architecture thrives on being ignored. It hides in plain sight – so let’s start noticing.
Seen a spiked bench? Divided seating? Take a photo and send it to us. Tag @RiotandReasonMagazine on Instagram or @RiotandReason25 on X.
We’ll expose it and shame it.
Because if cities are going to design people out, we’re going to call them out.
The museum is open to the public Thursday-Saturdays each week until November (12.30, 2pm and 3.45pm), tickets are FREE (donations encouraged) check out their website for more details – www.museumofhomelessness.org
