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Hostile design: how can urban design impact social inequality?

A design practice that obscures real social issues from the public.

Elvis Hsiao
UX Collective
9 min readJun 20, 2023
A homeless person sleeping on the floor in front of a sectioned bench.
Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/modern-minds/202012/is-your-town-filled-hostile-architecture

Imagine this. It’s a crisp autumn afternoon and you’re walking through your city’s downtown area. You see a beautifully designed bench in the park and decide to take a moment to rest and enjoy the view.

As you sit, however, you quickly realize the bench isn’t as comfortable as it looks. The armrests in the middle of the bench cut into your sides and the seat’s slanted design makes it difficult to find a comfortable position. It’s clear that this bench wasn’t designed for relaxation, and that’s no accident.

Unbeknownst to many of us, this kind of design is a part of our everyday lives. These seemingly innocent fixtures in our cities are examples of “hostile architecture” or “defensive design” which are deliberate design strategies employed to guide, control, or even restrict how we interact with urban spaces.

From benches designed to discourage sleeping or loitering to spikes preventing birds from perching, or studs deterring skateboarders from grinding on ledges, the physical environment around us is full of subtle cues influencing our behavior.

But what is hostile architecture, and why does it matter?

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Published in UX Collective

We believe designers are thinkers as much as they are makers. Curated stories on UX, Visual & Product Design. https://linktr.ee/uxc

Written by Elvis Hsiao

Product Designer | 3X Top Writer | Vancouver, BC | Creating Positive Impact Through Design.

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