Have you ever had to rough it in a heated airport, sleeping on a cushioned chair while you waited for your flight?
If you ever have, then you know how awful it is to sleep in an uncomfortable position, surrounded by people, without a blanket. Now, imagine for a moment, that instead of a heated airport, you’re on a concrete slab, in the dead of winter, surrounded by people who look away from you as they pass by (and there is no plane coming in 6 hours to fly you to Miami). Oh, and to make matters worse, the city puts up metal spikes on your concrete slab so you can’t even sleep comfortably on your highly uncomfortable “bed.”
The “defensive architecture” is used by office buildings in large cities to keep people from loitering or sitting for long periods on their front stoop. The offices display long rows of metal spikes that make it very uncomfortable for anybody who attempts to sit down.
Curtain Road in Shoreditch, East London had a group of artists protest these spikes in a collaboration they call “Space, Not Spikes.”
The artists placed makeshift beds in these spaces as a form of protest.
Additionally they filled the spaces with bookshelves and left a kind note for those who use the space.
Leah Borromeo spoke with the Independent and said the “defensive architecture” should actually be called “hostile architecture.”
Sleeping or sitting on a concrete slab is not an attack. However, if a disabled person needed to sit down for a rest, or if a sick person were to collapse, these metal spikes could quickly become dangerous and a form of ableism (which is prejudice against disabled people).
Additionally, these spike do nothing to solve the problems of homelessness. Instead, the “hostile architecture” sends the clear message that, “if you’re going to be homeless, go do it somewhere else so we don’t have to look at you.”
Human beings are encouraged to be self-centered with actions like these but Borromeo told Upworthy, that she believes we aren’t intrinsically like this. “Capitalism and greed conditions us to look out for ourselves and negate the welfare of others, but ultimately, I think we’re actually really kind.”
[Featured Image Credit: The Independent]