Theory
Hostile Architecture (defensive design)
Explore in the Atlas →The use of built-environment elements — anti-homeless spikes, divided benches, sloped sills — to covertly exclude unwanted users from public space, disproportionately targeting homeless, poor, young and disabled people. Studied critically as a tactic by which capital and the state encode exclusion and reinforce structural inequality into the city's surfaces.
Power Settlement Collectivity
Details
- Introduced
- —
Classifications
- Holder
- Individual
- Source of authority
- Observation
- Subject
- Human centred
- Political position
- Hegemonic
- Mode of transmission
- Text drawing
- Knowledge type
- Propositional
- Epistemic cluster
- Western philosophical
Connections
- relates to Defensible Space
Referenced by
- Everyday Urbanism opposes
Sources
- Robert Rosenberger. Callous Objects: Designs Against the Homeless. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "Hostile Architecture (defensive design)." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/theory/hostile-architecture/. Accessed July 17, 2026.