To kick off the discussion this week I wanted to share some things I think about
To kick off the discussion this week I wanted to share some things I think about when I study urban infrastructure. I’m mostly interested in the ways sociopolitical ways cities create subpopulations of humans and nonhumans who are considered undesirable, rejected, and in some cases actively driven out of shared urban spaces. These are the direct results of the way cities are built and governed, and demonstrate with crude zeal that some people are welcome in the city, while others are not.
My first link is to an article about the way urban spaces are physically built to try to deter, or at least make life more difficult, for people experiencing homelessness. These architectural adaptations are the result of combined private company decisions and local political policies that work to literally build an environment that is antagonistic to those already experiencing disadvantages. I will also point out, that in addition to architecture that strives to prevent use by homeless persons, some of these examples also include efforts to make urban open spaces less accessible for alternative uses of public spaces (like skateboarding, for example).
https://www.streetroots.org/news/2019/06/07/you-are-not-welcome-here-anti-homeless-architecture-crops-nationwide (Links to an external site.)
My second link is also about architectural interventions meant to determine certain types of life from urban spaces. In these examples, the urban animals may even suffer injury or death from the alterations to urban built environments.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/anti-pigeon-spikes-hostile-architecture (Links to an external site.)
I’d love to hear from you if you have ever noticed any of these commonplace urban designs. Did you know why many benches have “armrests” in the middle? Did you know what those spikes were intended to do above doorways? How many one-footed urban birds have you noticed?
