Archinect - News

A satirical look at the homelessness and housing crises by McSweeney's

2018-05-10T16:09:00-04:00

Homelessness in America has reached crisis levels and I am determined to do everything in my power to fix the problem as long as it doesn’t involve changing zoning laws or my ability to drive alone to work or, well, changing anything, really. I’m more than happy to give a hungry man a sandwich once a year and then brag to my friends about it as long as he doesn’t sit down anywhere in my line of sight to eat it. Same goes for hungry women because I’m also a feminist.

A superb piece satirizing the homelessness and housing crises by McSweeney's writer Homa Mojtabai. From a privileged and entitled point of view, Mojtabai highlights extreme issues on how problems are being "solved". This is of course an exaggeration—but by how much?

Meanwhile in San Francisco: deploying security robots to keep away homeless people

2017-12-13T13:27:00-05:00

In San Francisco, autonomous crime-fighting robots that are used to patrol parking lots, sports arenas, and tech company campuses are now being deployed to keep away homeless people. [...] Last week, the City of San Francisco ordered the SF SPCA to keep its robot off the streets or be fined up to $1,000 per day for operating on sidewalks without a permit [...]

When you're in Silicon Valley, everything looks like a tech solution. The same logic has been increasingly applied to San Francisco's overwhelming homelessness crisis where a growing legion of security robots — armed with lasers, sensors, cameras, and GPS — have been autonomously patrolling parking lots, campuses, and now also public sidewalks to deter houseless neighbors from setting up tent camps.

One local non-profit recently drew the ire of the City of San Francisco though for operating their security robot "in the public right-of-way without a proper approval."

Attempts of incapacitating and attacking the SPCA robot have been reported, including feces of unknown origin smeared on it.

Debating hostile architecture and its impact on our cities

2017-12-07T15:35:00-05:00

[...] hostile architecture -- a controversial type of urban design aimed at preventing people from using public spaces in undesirable ways. [...] CNN invited architect James Furzer, whose designs try to combat hostile architecture, to debate this issue with Dean Harvey, co-founder of the Factory Furniture: a company that produces many of the offending benches.

"Is it really a bad thing that you're encouraging people to hang around those spaces?," asks architect James Furzer in his CNN debate with Dean Harvey of Factory Furniture, maker of the controversial Camden bench. "Is that not what architecture and design are about? If we designed a building where people didn't want to stay for too long, because it's hostile and uncomfortable, have we succeeded in our jobs as architects? I don't think so."

Read the full debate here.

Architecture in the age of transparent hostility

2016-06-27T15:14:00-04:00

With the growing trend towards hostile architecture now openly admitting its political incentives, are we in an age of transparent hostility? [...] Whereas other instances of hostile architecture are marked by their deliberate obscurity, the Camden Bench was developed, constructed and deployed in plain sight, making it an all too visible reminder of persistent negligence, raising the question: will hostile architecture become an accepted feature of the built environment?

Amid London's austerity measures, "defensive design" becomes even more hostile

2016-01-04T13:21:00-05:00

Designing out homelessness appears to be part of a wider ambition to make consumers and investors feel secure, while avoiding direct human intervention. [...] It is an indictment of our communities that we have come to identify street homelessness as a form of “disorder” – a sign that something is amiss or dangerous in our public spaces. Yet the reality is that these kinds of design and security measures are put in place because of the breakdown of these very communities.

This piece by Rowland Atkinson (Chair in Inclusive Societies) and Aidan While (Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning) at the University of Sheffield gets at how exclusionary design towards the homeless and so-called "rough" sleepers (those who sleep in the city's streets) is a sign of increasing societal rifts, as income inequality and austerity measures press down hard on London.