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Powerful anti-homeless spikes art has put the spotlight on what campaigners term “insidious” hostile architecture of Britain.
Artist Stuart Semple and creative agency TBWA\MCR teamed up to create bespoke posters to fit anti-homeless spikes built into doorways and paved areas.
The hard-hitting works of art were then punctured with the spikes to show the “inhumanity” of the hostile designs.
Speaking to the Big Issue during the roll-out of the art, Semple said: “Hostile design is so insidious that it’s often easy to miss the true intention of it. Raising awareness so that people can spot what’s happening in the public realm for me has always been the first step in shifting the culture.
“At the end of the day, design shouldn’t be perverted to harm the vulnerable and city planners and designers should be using their talents to include, nurture and support communities.”
Semple’s HostileDesign.org campaign has been running for a number of years, inviting people to download stickers from his website to highlight ‘design crimes’.
The artist went viral in 2018 when he highlighted bars placed on a bench in Bournemouth to discourage rough sleepers bedding down.
That post inspired rapper Professor Green and designer Max Murdo to detach the bars before the local council removed them.
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