
Unpleasant Design – Objects - chippy
http://unpleasant.pravi.me/category/objects/
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lucb1e
Wordpress strikes again. Cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Funpleasant.pravi.me%2Fcategory%2Fobjects%2F)

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chippy
Thank you! I'm surprised by the amount of traffic submitting it may take out
on a server. I wonder if I should put in better caches and controls on my own
sites!

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lucb1e
Well I don't use Wordpress and easily survived the HN homepage (third
position) on a low-end Intel Atom-powered server... but I suppose you might
also turn on caching if you really want to stick with the good ol'
Wordpress...

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steveklabnik
I tweeted this, and someone pointed me to
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciplinary_architecture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciplinary_architecture)

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chippy
If anything I hope the latest anti homeless spike story to open people's eyes
a little bit more as to how our urban environment is planned and designed...
and by extension to more things in our lives.

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icebraining
99% Invisble had a few episodes that touched on that theme, primarily The
Arsenal of Exclusion[1], but also the episode on the LOVE Park[2], which
discussed the anti-skating measures (and includes one of the park designers
skating in protest, at 92 years old!), and an episode on the Privately Owned
Public Open Spaces (POPOS), which are often designed to discourage the public
from actually using them.

[1] [http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-51-the-
arsenal...](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-51-the-arsenal-of-
exclusion/)

[2] [http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-71-in-and-
out-...](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-71-in-and-out-of-love/)

[3]
[http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-09-99-private/](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-09-99-private/)

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Theodores
It is a bit of an arms race. A war on pigeons and homeless people.

At some point the space under those benches with too many arm-rests will look
like a pretty good place to sleep given the alternatives. So the next step
will be some extra legs to prohibit sleeping under a bench. Then sleeping
behind a bench will look pretty good given the alternatives, so benches will
have to be located next to walls. It could do on until there is no such thing
as street furniture and nobody dare put street furniture up just out of fear
that it will attract homeless people. Our outdoor environment will then be
entirely privatised, where, if you need a seat, you pay.

Shelters clearly do not suit homeless people most of the time, maybe we need
to think about using some normal benches in a 'honeypot' configuration, so the
homeless community know there is somewhere that they can sleep rough without
being abused and kept up all night.

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oneeyedpigeon
Topical because of this [1] maybe.

[1] [http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/08/metal-
spikes-...](http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/08/metal-spikes-
london-flats-homeless)

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chippy
Yes very topical.

In most of the other examples you can rationalise the control aspect "oh, it's
to prevent stupid people injuring themselves" or "it doesn't stop law abiding
people from..."

In the topical spikes example there is no such rationalisation that we can do
and this is why there is such outrage. Because it hurts psychologically,
because we cannot pretend it's not there. The outrage is not really about
homelessness - it's about our shame.

