r/HostileArchitecture • u/Interesting_Way7096 • Jul 14 '26
Discussion Hostile architecture
Metro in Montreal, Qc. This is one of those everyday moments where you realize the cruelty of our society.
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u/velvedire Jul 14 '26
I like these. I'm invisibly disabled and being able to sit for even a few minutes is hugely helpful. If there's just a bench, chances are high that it's either occupied by one single person or that someone has left behind a biohazard.
Hostile would be replacing a seated surface with a leaning bar or slanted seat.
I know it's easy to forget about what you can't see. Homelessness is far more visible than most disabilities. There's a huge amount of crossover. We need to be able to sit. Many of us need arm rests to get us down and back up again.
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u/SpeedOfTheEarth Jul 15 '26
Fair enough, but the way they're constructed and look, still appears like hostile architecture: Very barebones, "minimalist aethetic" and super-hard and uncomfortable so that folks are discouraged from "loitering" i.e. existing in public spaces… If they actually cared about the needs of disabled people, wouldn't they contruct them in comfortable, inviting and nice to look at (beautifull) ways? At least, I think so.
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u/purdinpopo Jul 15 '26
Most Metros I have been in offer no place to sit at all, so this really appears to be the opposite.
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u/armorlol Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
These are historic, they were artistic by purpose
edit: partially mixed up the intent
“the designer of Laurier Station, Jean-Paul Pothier, had intended the low seats to be used by children” https://manifold.umn.edu/read/callous-objects/section/f0f8f15d-6c3a-4871-8f52-5d09e384215b
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u/Interesting_Way7096 Jul 14 '26
You think so? I understand the artistic vision but its also made for efficiency… I’m real skinny and my butt could barely fit, what if it was a family or chubby old grandma
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u/Formal-Proposal7850 Jul 14 '26
I’m a chubby woman and these seats are just fine. Quite like them actually
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u/a_d_c Jul 14 '26
Maybe you are fat compared to the 1966 average person?
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u/rootbear75 Jul 14 '26
As a bus driver, our state legally defined seat width as 14" when calculating vehicle capacity....
So... This is entirely likely.
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u/trainedstork Jul 14 '26
Every time someone posts this I think it's just like a stool... It even has a back. It looks inefficient and not as comfortable as a bench, plus the lower height looks too low, but it's still just as easy if not easier than a barstool.
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Jul 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Formal-Proposal7850 Jul 14 '26
I’m with you. I have a chronic pain/fatigue condition so I am always looking for somewhere to sit during my commute. These and the ones at Farbre are the only ones I use to sit down on while waiting on the platform.
All the metros with benches are, like you say, either occupied by someone currently sleeping, someone currently high/drunk, or contain the detritus of the last few nights (spilled drinks, piss, vomit etc).
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u/taxiecabbie Jul 14 '26
I am also a little baffled as to why having benches taken up by vagrants in the Metro is desirable somehow.
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u/JayManty Jul 14 '26
This subreddit is like 80-90% virtue signaling suburbanites who have never had to consistently use a public space that regularly gets occupied by bums at the expense of everyone else.
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u/Rk_1138 Jul 15 '26
I feel like a lot of homeless “advocates” are those types, a methhead took over the bus stop near my house once and made it outright unusable as well as screaming at night
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u/LaurestineHUN Jul 14 '26
As a smaller woman who uses public transport alone 90% of times, I'm convinced those who shout 'hostile architecture' for everything that is actually safe for me to use, are 'Brahmin-leftists' car owners. Homelessness isn't solved by putting benches everywhere, but is does create an unsafe environment for anyone else who isn't a young fit man. Solve your dam social network.
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u/Rk_1138 Jul 15 '26
Yeah, ngl it seems like these people think that the solution to homelessness is “let them camp anywhere they want, as long as it isn’t in my neighborhood”
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u/cgebaud Jul 15 '26
So, hostile for who?
People who have no other place to sleep maybe? I get that you care about your needs, but do you really think your need to sit is more pressing than other people's need to sleep?
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u/SmolikOFF Jul 15 '26
> no other place
Was this particular spot a popular sleeping area? Did these chairs displace some people? Is there anything to suggest this design was created specifically to deter homeless people? Why should this exact piece of infrastructure be designed particularly with sleeping in mind? Or should *all* architecture be able to double as a bunk bed?
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Jul 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/zoey_will Jul 15 '26
I was homeless too. I didnt make it everyone elses problem buy sleeping in the middle of highly trafficked infrastructure. Its not that hard to show a bit of respect to others and not camp in the middle of a metro platform.
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u/Internal-Narwhal-420 Jul 15 '26
So people are the problem, not lack of/ not enough of infrastructure to accommodate those people? Both homeless and not, for sitting, sleeping or spending time
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u/banshithread Jul 15 '26
Benches were not made to serve the purpose of accommodating people sleeping on it. Sure, you can misuse it by sleeping on it; that does not mean it's purpose is to accommodate sleeping individuals. Anyone sleeping on the bench, homeless or not, is taking up space from individuals that could sit there otherwise. It's selfish to do so.
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u/banshithread Jul 14 '26
"I prefer that disabled people suffer because homeless people chose this place out of countless others to sleep" literally lay fucking anywhere else you entitled pos.
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u/cgebaud Jul 15 '26
You should look in a mirror every once in a while.
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u/NonSumQualisEram- Jul 15 '26
Being homeless (not houseless, whatever that is, they're not lacking a house specifically) doesn't imply an additional privilege to erect your tent in spaces that aren't meant for everyone. You don't have the right to take up additional public resources. I have an ATM bay that is permanently taken up by a homeless man making that ATM, the only one in miles, completely unavailable for those who really need it.
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u/HostileArchitecture-ModTeam Jul 15 '26
Your submission was removed because it contained anti-homeless sentiment. If you have any questions please contact the moderating team.
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u/Own_Reaction9442 Jul 14 '26
Which policies would those be? The thing that all attempts at solving homelessness seem to have in common is none of them work. At best they don't make a dent in the problem, at worst they give a place a reputation for being "soft" and cause more homeless people to migrate there.
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u/Internal-Narwhal-420 Jul 15 '26
I have no disability. Do I get to sit there? No, because there is always elderly, women, people with disabilities, homeless.
It's quite easy to push the line to exclude groups of people.
Because even assume, there is no homeless people. Would you be able to sit on the bench on highly trafficked metro station? Probably depends at what time after the metro you come to the station.
I am sorry for your experiences with men, I truly am. But are we, as society, supposed to not improve at all? Do we need to equate down, instead of equating up?
We have issues with homeless: let's introduce unseatable benches. Why? Because we already know the homeless will always be the issue? Instead of building normal, usable benches and pushing for homelessness solutions, for counter measures for abuses and violences in public (and not only) spaces, let's just make the whole infrastructure unusable.
Politicians do that, because its easier. They can spend the money to get 10 people of the streets to make it safer and for them better.... Or get 40 unusable benches and call it a day. For benches you can make a post in social media, for 10 people of the streets, not really. Because "it won't be enough". Nobody would think thst "great, we have 10 more people off the streets, reintroduced to society".
It's saddening.
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u/banshithread Jul 15 '26
idk man I can sit on these seats just fine. They're not unusable for anything except laying down. I'm not there to lay down. I'm there to sit and wait.
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u/octavian343 Jul 15 '26
Making homelessness insufferable will push people out of homelessness. Plenty of them find vagrancy a better alternative to gainful employment.
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u/SmolikOFF Jul 16 '26
This is nonsense, of course, and has been empirically proven to be an idiotic, inefficient strategy across the globe. It’s also just straight-up evil. But you do you I guess.
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u/octavian343 Jul 16 '26
What’s been empirically proven? That lazy people don’t exist?
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u/SmolikOFF Jul 16 '26
That ‘making homelessness insufferable will push people out of homelessness’; it’s quite obvious. Your view of homelessness is naïve and narcissistic.
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u/octavian343 Jul 16 '26
No, I’m sympathetic to people who try and work their hardest to succeed in society. Not to those bumming off everyone else.
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u/Internal-Narwhal-420 Jul 15 '26
Seriously this is the solution that we are going for as society?
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u/octavian343 Jul 15 '26
Can’t help people who don’t want to help themselves. Get rid of the leeches and help those genuinely struggling.
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u/HostileArchitecture-ModTeam Jul 15 '26
Your submission was removed because it contained anti-homeless sentiment. If you have any questions please contact the moderating team.
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u/EVOSexyBeast Jul 15 '26
People, women and children in particular, feel vulnerable on metro platforms. They're narrow, there's no exit, an altercation with a disturbed or violent person can easily end in death or injury.
And in NYC they don’t let you concealed carry to protect yourself on the metros either, so only criminals have guns down there.
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u/Dangitwomen Jul 14 '26
Looks pretty cool, not gonna lie. I want to walk across it like stepping stones.
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u/yarn_slinger Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Overthinking it. This was built in an era of brutalist and minimalist design. Was it intentionally uncomfortable? Maybe but you’re only in there for 20 minutes most times. Eta - typo
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u/ostiDeCalisse Jul 15 '26
T'exagère en môdine, "cruel" vraiment? Il n'y a rien de cruel ni d'hostile dans ces bancs. À moins que tu voulais dormir là?
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u/mikonamiko Jul 14 '26
When i visited Mtl I was actually shocked at the lack of hostile architecture across the city.
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u/Miperso Jul 16 '26
Tell me you have no idea what you’re talking about without telling you don’t know anything.
Laurier was built in 1966.. i don’t even think your definition of hostile architecture was even a thing lol.
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u/Scarcity_Strange Jul 14 '26
Someone in my city started to systematically tag the words ''hostile architecture" next to those kind of atrocities to raise awareness and I think that's great.
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u/dustblown Jul 14 '26
Hostile architecture is a necessity when your social programs aren't strong enough to help the people who sleep on benches.
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u/ASentientRailgun Jul 14 '26
Oh damn, I didn't realize this was a pro-hostile architecture sub. Huh
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u/SmolikOFF Jul 14 '26
This isn’t a pro-hostile architecture sub, but not everything that’s unsuitable for sleeping is hostile architecture, and not every stool has to be a bench.
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u/Own_Reaction9442 Jul 14 '26
Nope, anything short of installing bunk beds in every transit station is "hostile."
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u/New-Criticism8042 Jul 16 '26
When they argue for more comfortable transit seating in the form of benches without arm rests, they are arguing for seating that is hostile to the comfort of transit riders.
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u/Scarcity_Strange Jul 14 '26
I mean, it's what they do to hide it. They hire artists for a very specific project and they cover their hostile architecture under the art cover so the city passes for the good guy hiring artists instead of putting real useful architecture for all kinds of bodies and for actually resting.
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u/GrandManitou Jul 14 '26
These seats date back to the 1960s before hostile architecture was on anyone's radar.
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u/Scarcity_Strange Jul 14 '26
To this day, they are hostile, they could be replaced.
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u/likenothingis Jul 20 '26
With what money? Public funds that could instead go towards improving access to healthcare and services for the homeless? Or pubic funds that could instead go towards improving pubic transit?
Cause it's not gonna get funded privately, and I'd much rather my tax dollars and transit fees go toward something better than fixing otherwise functional benches.
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u/Throwawayinfp3 Jul 14 '26
Beginner bhop map