Jan 29: Taking a walk on the wild side

If you live in an urban area, you will have come across areas which are not designed for you to enter, but which you might move into from time to time for convenience. These areas include central reservations, which might have pebbles embedded in cement, for example to help encourage people to use the crossings that are further down the road.

These areas are subject to what is called defensive design.

There are names for some of these spaces.

Andrew Bonnett in his book "Off the Map" refers to several types of defensive space.


This is also sometimes called 'Hostile Urbanism'.

Bonnett mentions a list of such spaces produced by Steven Flusty in a book called 'Building Paranoia':

• Stealthy space: space that cannot be found
• Slippery space: space that cannot be reached, due to contorted, protracted or missing paths
• Crusty space: space that cannot be accessed, due to obstructions such as walls, gates and checkpoints
• Prickly space: space that cannot be comfortably occupied
• Jittery space: space that cannot be utilized unobserved

One controversial use of this, which I featured in the OCR GCSE textbooks that I wrote, is the installation of homeless spikes to stop people lingering outside buildings, or benches which have barriers to prevent people using them as a bed.

Next time you're walking through a park or what might appear to be a public space in a city (which is perhaps more likely to be private property without you realising it), keep an eye out for them.
For these places, there will always be a response.


Check out Sarah Ross' Archi-Suits which are a response to these places.
Check this out too...



Images: London, Olympics Park, Alan Parkinson

Reading: Alastair Bonnett: "Off the Map" (Aurum Press, 2017) - Spikespace

While you are out on your daily exercise, or taking a screen break from home learning, why not seek out examples of these spaces in your own local area?