Norwich City Council, in apparent solidarity with rough sleepers, are taking away armrests from public benches so that night sleepers can stretch out more. This is an endeavour to be more supportive of those reduced to turning public spaces into temporary dormitories.
For perhaps the last 20 years many local authorities and private property owners have been doing the exact opposite. Putting metal bolts on flat spaces so that they become impossible to sit on, let alone lie on. ‘Social dislodgement’ you might call it; architectural solutions to social problems. One of the canniest inventions was to turn bus shelter seats slightly tilted so that after a short time you began to slip off.
The same incentive to dislodge the homeless is the same reason they put sub par cladding on Grenfell. To remove the unsightly poor through obfuscation. Don’t want the well heeled getting pangs of conscience.
That’s my issue with hostile architecture. I live in los Angeles. The homeless here are struggling and need material help, but to many they are deemed like animals that need to be chased away. I regularly hear people talk about the homeless as if they are an inconvenience instead of people suffering. The lack of empathy is mind boggling. I’m only one guy, what can my dumbass do though?
What about the ordinary residents of Notting Hill? Should they have to be reminded every day of the fire and death? Should they have to risk bits of debris falling off? Should a building with no windows be left exposed to the weather? Just so that the well-heeled have to suffer the same reminder as the poors, it sounds like?
The difference between hostile architecture and cladding Grenfell is that covering Grenfell serves practical purposes.