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Article created by: Justinas Keturka

When you stroll around your favorite city, what do you notice about its architecture? Its famous landmarks? The beautiful greenery among the towering skyscrapers? Or perhaps the lively and inviting public spaces? These elements certainly grab our attention, but that’s not all there is. See, bars on benches and spikes on window sills are also a part of the urban landscape, and it’s put in place to control how the environments are used.

There are many things that influence how we feel in our surroundings that we almost never notice. But unfortunately, such aggressive measures are more common than you may think, according to the eye-opening Twitter account titled ‘Hostile Design’. The creator of this page collects pictures that show the dire reality of how public spaces target the houseless and don’t actually do any good to the public.

If you’re unsure of what we mean, then take a look at the compilation of pictures we gathered from the account. Just to warn you though, it’s one of those things that once you learn about it, you start seeing it everywhere. Keep reading to also find in-depth interviews with the founder of this page and public space researcher Cara Chellew. Upvote the examples that stunned you most, and if you’ve ever detected cases of hostile design in your own city, be sure to let us know about them in the comments below.

Psst! More urban madness can be found in our earlier post right here.