No Welcoming Spaces for Unhoused People in Eugene
Stark Vuksic
History of Interior Architecture III
Solmaz Kive
June 16, 2023
No Welcoming Spaces for Unhoused People in Eugene
Homelessness has emerged as a frontline talking point in recent years. There is more national attention today on this problem than there ever has been. With this heightened attention has come a focus on which cities have the largest unhoused populations and what they can do to help solve this problem. Eugene has been focused on as one of these cities with a large unhoused population, especially in relation to the size of Eugene. With this new focus has come a scramble to push out unhoused people to try and lose the certain label that they have been assigned. In this frantic attempt to decrease the homeless population they turned to short-term resolves using hostile architecture and furniture. They fail to address the underlying issues of mental health, addiction, and an unsustainable economic situation. Instead, they have written in legislation to remove many camps and have changed many spaces to be less accommodating for unhoused people. One building in Eugene that expresses this desire for quick changes without addressing the core problem is Expresso Roma. It stands on the border of the recent gentrification of 13th street as the university funds a complete revamp of the street and in doing so, they have driven out all the unhoused people that used the buildings for shelter.
This building is not obviously a hostile design with it seemingly being a covered, open space because there are not outwardly hostile aspects like spikes or boulders. However, there is an alleyway along the side that has been completely blocked off with a barbed wire fence to discourage people from trying to use the alley as shelter. During the winter a covered space like an alleyway can be extremely beneficial with protection from the wind as well as an escape from the rain. Expresso Roma also stacks their furniture along the outside, under the shading devices to make it difficult for unhoused people to use their coverings as some sort of shelter. As another student pointed out the architecture of Expresso Roma seems to try and force the patrons to use the space in a specific way. (Figure 1) The entire block of 13th street has become more and more unwelcoming to unhoused people. Within the last few years there have been several crackdowns on limiting homeless encampments along this road. It falls under the umbrella of gentrification and discourages any alternative forms of living. Another student points out how Expresso Roma was a blank canvas and a staple of Eugene. (Figure 3) However, this new change to 13th street will hurt these smaller buildings as they only focus on building them upwards. The city of Eugene is becoming increasingly unwelcoming to the homeless population and continually pushes them farther and farther away from the larger urban population. This focus on pushing unhoused people out is more of an out of site, out of mind approach instead of creating public help centers or programs to tackle the problem at the root. They accomplish this through several different hostile methods.
Hostile design is a cornerstone of attacks on the unhoused population. There are several different methods for discouraging them from using some spaces as shelter. One such typology is the modification of spaces. This typology focuses on how institutions are modifying already existing spaces by adding random things to make it difficult for an unhoused person to use it in a different way other than intended. One particular type is how they change covered bus stop benches to be the most uncomfortable for using them in any other way other than simply sitting. One such bus stop is outside Safeway where the bench is metal and broken up in slats so that heat retention becomes extremely difficult. There are also unnecessary arm rests on either side to make laying down uncomfortable. These design changes are not necessary but were made with the sole purpose of discouraging unhoused people from using it. Another bench is along the Walnut Bus Station. There are similar metal slats to disrupt heat retention and an armrest in the middle to prevent laying down. There is also a curved seat which makes it nearly impossible to lie down. Another method is the disruption of flat spaces. When there are flat, usable spaces there tends to be a higher homeless population because there is actually space for them to set up a camp. To discourage this, many institutions install unmovable objects in these flat spaces. One such space is along Patterson where there was a large flat, soft space between the walkway and the road. To prevent camping, they have installed large boulders to essentially cut the space in half. These boulders make the amount of usable space significantly less. Another disruption of flat spaces is downtown where the city installed bike racks along the road to make it unusable for homeless people to camp. It is intentional as they installed them diagonally to prevent people from camping in the spaces in between. Finally, many institutions like to install metal studs in order to prevent and discourage people from laying down on them. They initially made retaining walls and noticed people were using them, so they installed metal studs. There are several installed outside Matthew Knight Arena with extremely long planters dotted with these metal studs. The same idea is used outside the bank along 13th Street which goes along with the gentrification that is already being implemented.
Figure 1: Outside Expresso Roma
Figure 2: Backside of Expresso Roma
Figure 3: Inside of Expresso Roma
Figure 4: Front of Expresso Alleyway
Figure 5: Outside New Science Building
Figure 6: Boulders along 20th
Figure 7: Outside US Bank
Figure 8: Gateway Center
Figure 9: Bus Stop on 13th
Figure 10: Walnut St. Bus Stop
Figure 11: Matthew Knight
Figure 12: Downtown
Figure 13: Allan Price Library
Figure 14: 5th Street
Bibliography:
Figure 1: Individuality of Expresso Roma by ssoto2
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/04/19/individuality-of-espresso-roma/
Expresso Roma by ayakov
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/04/10/espresso-roma/
Figure 3: Burlap, Blank Walls and Believability by rking3
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/05/10/burlap-blank-walls-and-believability/
Gender, Class, and the Creation of a Diverse Atmosphere with Interior Architecture by sbaker8
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/04/18/35955/
Figure 5: Hostile Design at the University of Oregon: Knight Campus by egarret3
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/05/30/hostile-design-at-the-university-of-oregon-knight-campus/
Figure 6: Boulder Blockades by rking3
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/05/30/boulder-blockades/
Figure 7: Don’t Choose Here: Hostile Architecture in Eugene by lsmith21
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/05/30/dont-choose-here-hostile-architecture-in-eugene/
Figure 8: Hostile Bench in Shopping Plaza by lechengw
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/05/30/hostile-design-bench-in-shopping-plaza/
Figure 9: Hostile Design at the University of Oregon: Examining Lillis Business Complex by sbaker8
Figure 10: Hostile Architecture: Benches at the EMX Walnut Station by faithw
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/05/30/hostile-architecture-benches-at-the-emx-walnut-station/
Figure 11: Go! (away) Ducks! – (Univ. of Oregon Hostile Architecture) by mlovette
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/05/28/go-away-ducks-uo-hostile-architecture/
Figure 12: Hostile Design in Downtown Eugene by Jesper Braun
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/05/30/hostile-design-in-downtown-eugene/
Figure 13: Hostile Design by Allan Price Library by tinao
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/05/30/hostile-design-by-allan-price-library/
Figure 14: The Hidden Hostile Designs of 5th Street by danbiek
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/h3s23/2023/05/30/the-hidden-hostile-designs-around-us/
