How a picture of bench started people talking about anti-homeless architecture

On Saturday, Isaac Azuelos, a resident of Calgary, Alberta, Canada posted a picture of a bench on Twitter painted in the colours of the LGBT+ rainbow flag.

That was great - however, less encouraging were the dividers disguised as armrests that had been placed on the bench.

The armrests might look like any regular piece of furniture design, but they often double up as deterrents to prevent homeless people from sleeping on them.

These examples of anti-homeless architecture are more common than what you might think but are well disguised.

After Isaac shared a few more examples of anti-homeless architecture around Calgary, it opened a discussion about this type of hostile design.

Other people weren't so sure, and felt that the rests were potentially there for other reasons and not just to prevent homeless people from sleeping on them.

After Isaac's tweet went viral, the company responsible for the park where it was housed got in touch to attempt to clear up the situation and explain that the bench was a donation and not their design.

Hostile design and anti-homeless architecture have been a topical subject in 2018.

In February British musician Professor Green removed bars from benches in Bournemouth, which eventually led to a complete u-turn from the council and the entire removal of bars from the town.

HT Twitter Moments

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