Interrogative Design as a Means for Confronting Hostile Architecture
type: CreativeWork
description: This practice-based research considers how, in the context of homelessness, people struggle to inhabit and shape space to connect with their surroundings and establish a sense of place. Focusing on the situation of homelessness in London, the research investigates spatial design as a form of interrogative design applied to the issue of homelessness. The thesis interrogates hostile design by exploring the theoretical underpinnings of ‘affordance’ theory and its implications for understanding the phenomenon of so-called ‘hostile’ architecture; it examines possibilities to shed light on the complex interplay between human perception, environmental affordances, and social control. Here, the body is seen as a critical location of our connection and expression of our sociality. Homelessness is a multifaceted concept, and people neglect the vulnerability associated with a population that is disproportionally impacted by social, economic, political and environmental agendas in London. Focusing on the physical and psychological relation with space, negatively impacted by hostile architecture, the research aims to conduct an anonymised inventory of private domestic rituals, necessarily carried out in public through drawings, maps and photographs of traces of inhabitation. This research engages spatial conditions that push the boundary of public space, using temporal edifices and social narratives. The research will draw on the various notions and typologies of hostile design, in order to highlight the dehumanising nature of such designs in the built environment and the repercussions of designing public space with social exclusion in mind. Examining the intersection of hostile design, homelessness, and the blurred divide between public and private space in London, the research uses practice to confront this boundary, shedding new light on how urban environments impact vulnerable populations. It seeks to counter effects of hostile architecture on the homeless through interventi…
abstract: This practice-based research considers how, in the context of homelessness, people struggle to inhabit and shape space to connect with their surroundings and establish a sense of place. Focusing on the situation of homelessness in London, the research investigates spatial design as a form of interrogative design applied to the issue of homelessness. The thesis interrogates hostile design by exploring the theoretical underpinnings of ‘affordance’ theory and its implications for understanding the phenomenon of so-called ‘hostile’ architecture; it examines possibilities to shed light on the complex interplay between human perception, environmental affordances, and social control. Here, the body is seen as a critical location of our connection and expression of our sociality. Homelessness is a multifaceted concept, and people neglect the vulnerability associated with a population that is disproportionally impacted by social, economic, political and environmental agendas in London. Focusing on the physical and psychological relation with space, negatively impacted by hostile architecture, the research aims to conduct an anonymised inventory of private domestic rituals, necessarily carried out in public through drawings, maps and photographs of traces of inhabitation. This research engages spatial conditions that push the boundary of public space, using temporal edifices and social narratives. The research will draw on the various notions and typologies of hostile design, in order to highlight the dehumanising nature of such designs in the built environment and the repercussions of designing public space with social exclusion in mind. Examining the intersection of hostile design, homelessness, and the blurred divide between public and private space in London, the research uses practice to confront this boundary, shedding new light on how urban environments impact vulnerable populations. It seeks to counter effects of hostile architecture on the homeless through interventi…
author: Bennie, Adrienne
language: en
keywords: Architecture, Urban studies, Housing
identifier: Bennie, Adrienne <https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/view/creators/Bennie=3AAdrienne=3A=3A.html> (2023) Interrogative Design as a Means for Confronting Hostile Architecture. PhD thesis, University of the Arts London.
date published: 2023-09
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:00:53Z
provider: University of the Arts London
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of the Arts London