There's a name for uncomfortable benches, hard-to-reach parks, and ubiquitous surveillance: disciplinary architecture.
A few weeks ago, news emerged that a New York building was planning a separate entrance for residents of its low-income units--"poor doors." Outrage ensued, but the truth is, urban design that tries to segregate well-off from welfare is nothing new. Before poor doors there were anti-homeless spikes, pay-per-minute benches, public spaces secluded behind private infrastructure, and more.
The origins of such exclusionary design--which scholars have called everything from disciplinary architecture to unpleasant design to interdictory space--are ostensibly well-intentioned: to preserve the public order and reduce the timeless fear of crime among city residents. The validity of that reasoning can be debated, but what's clear is that such design, by any name, typically targets poor minorities without a strong political voice.
"Urban design that tries to segregate well-off from welfare is nothing new."
"One thing that I think is universal about this design, no matter where you go in the world, is it has the effect of separating majorities of the population from relatively small affluent elite minorities of the population," Steven Flusty, who documented interdictory space in Los Angeles in the 1990s, tells Co.Design. "You can't have anything like a just or equitable society unless it includes spatiality."
In a 1994 treatise called "Building Paranoia," Flusty categorized five types (or, in his words, "flavors") of disciplinary architecture that perpetuate this urban spatial injustice. Residents of today's cities will quickly notice how applicable the categories remain.
"The inequality plaguing many American cities today is a direct result of disciplinary architecture."
Stealthy. Stealthy space, while ostensibly public, is tough to find. Maybe there's no clear signage pointing out the stealthy space, or maybe it's just hidden from view. In 2009, the nonprofit SPUR documented and mapped dozens of privately owned public spaces (POPS) throughout San Francisco--many of which are poorly marked or inaccessible by passing pedestrians, despite being designated as places for public use. In some cases, the public space is located beyond a security desk.
Despite its checkered history, disciplinary architecture has the potential for social good. Jittery design outside an urban senior center, for instance, might not only prevent crimes against the elderly but also alert officials of falls or health emergencies. Dan Lockton, who studies what he calls "design with intent" at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, says a lot of the problems would be solved if designers imagined themselves as the target of the intervention.
"Everyone who's involved in it believes that a design is serving a 'good' purpose, from their perspective, whether that's stopping homeless people sleeping in doorways, or stopping protestors attaching posters to lamp-posts, or trying to persuade obese people to exercise," Lockton tells Co.Design. "Very few people ever believe that their design has 'poor' intentions."
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3034206/slicker-city/the-hidden-ways-urban-design-segregates-the-poor
A few weeks ago, news emerged that a New York building was planning a separate entrance for residents of its low-income units--"poor doors." Outrage ensued, but the truth is, urban design that tries to segregate well-off from welfare is nothing new. Before poor doors there were anti-homeless spikes, pay-per-minute benches, public spaces secluded behind private infrastructure, and more.
The origins of such exclusionary design--which scholars have called everything from disciplinary architecture to unpleasant design to interdictory space--are ostensibly well-intentioned: to preserve the public order and reduce the timeless fear of crime among city residents. The validity of that reasoning can be debated, but what's clear is that such design, by any name, typically targets poor minorities without a strong political voice.
"Urban design that tries to segregate well-off from welfare is nothing new."
"One thing that I think is universal about this design, no matter where you go in the world, is it has the effect of separating majorities of the population from relatively small affluent elite minorities of the population," Steven Flusty, who documented interdictory space in Los Angeles in the 1990s, tells Co.Design. "You can't have anything like a just or equitable society unless it includes spatiality."
In a 1994 treatise called "Building Paranoia," Flusty categorized five types (or, in his words, "flavors") of disciplinary architecture that perpetuate this urban spatial injustice. Residents of today's cities will quickly notice how applicable the categories remain.
"The inequality plaguing many American cities today is a direct result of disciplinary architecture."
Stealthy. Stealthy space, while ostensibly public, is tough to find. Maybe there's no clear signage pointing out the stealthy space, or maybe it's just hidden from view. In 2009, the nonprofit SPUR documented and mapped dozens of privately owned public spaces (POPS) throughout San Francisco--many of which are poorly marked or inaccessible by passing pedestrians, despite being designated as places for public use. In some cases, the public space is located beyond a security desk.
Despite its checkered history, disciplinary architecture has the potential for social good. Jittery design outside an urban senior center, for instance, might not only prevent crimes against the elderly but also alert officials of falls or health emergencies. Dan Lockton, who studies what he calls "design with intent" at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, says a lot of the problems would be solved if designers imagined themselves as the target of the intervention.
"Everyone who's involved in it believes that a design is serving a 'good' purpose, from their perspective, whether that's stopping homeless people sleeping in doorways, or stopping protestors attaching posters to lamp-posts, or trying to persuade obese people to exercise," Lockton tells Co.Design. "Very few people ever believe that their design has 'poor' intentions."
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3034206/slicker-city/the-hidden-ways-urban-design-segregates-the-poor
