May 29, 2025 | 1990s, Week 9
In the article “Defensive Landscape Architecture in Modern Public Spaces,” Chris Binnington and Alessio Russo talk about how the increasing use of defensive landscape architecture undermines the inclusivity and accessibility of public urban spaces. It is very common for people to justify using these design elements as crime prevention measures, which means marginalizing vulnerable groups such as the homeless, the youth, and people with disabilities. In order for a place to be fully sustainable, the writers agree that it must adopt a holistic design approach where social inclusion and community engagement are priorities over exclusionary tactics. Binnington and Russo are advocates for public spaces to be designed for coexistence rather than separation as a result of hostile design.
One main point made is how defensive designs often target specific groups as a way to deter them from certain public spaces. Elements like absent materials, benches with armrests, and anti-homeless spikes are placed with the intention of making spaces uncomfortable for people to exist in them. While to some degree, they can serve as safety enhancements, they are more effective in criminalizing poverty and youth culture, thus emphasizing and contributing to social inequalities. One example of this is the use of bright lights and security cameras to deter people from sleeping in spaces and from hanging out as if they feel like they are being watched they won’t want to spend time there.
Another point is how inclusive design can serve as a viable alternative to defensive architecture. In the Folkets Park in Copenhagen, there was a community wide renovation which introduced armless benches allowing people to sleep on them and lighting which was zoned to create a balance of safety. Another example was in Melbourne’s urban planning, they incorporated skateboarding facilities into public spaces as it is a big part of the culture. Both of these are examples of ways that spaces can be effectively designed to both be safe and welcoming for a diverse community without having to use exclusionary design practices.
Figure 1. Anti-homeless bench
https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/designing-for-typologies/hostile-architecture-anti-homeless-architecture/
This photo shows an example of a bench that falls under the category of hostile design. Some reasons for this is the material being metal makes it really hot in the summer cause it isn’t under a cover and makes it really cold in the winter and the shape of it makes it uncomfortable to sit on or lay on.
Picture
Figure 2. Enclosed Fence
House Beautiful, July 1990, volume 132, no, 7, pg 61
This could be seen as an example of hostile design using a fence to keep people in and out as a way of defining the boundary of where people are not allowed to cross.
May 29, 2025 | 1990s, 2020s, reaction paper, Week 9
Summary/Takeaway
In the article “Defensive Landscape Architecture in Modern Public Spaces,” written by Chris Binnington and Alessio Russo, they argue that the increasing use of defensive design elements like spikes, separated benches, etc., diminishes inclusivity and accessibility in public spaces. These actions are usually used to target groups like the homeless or skateboarders, excluding them from areas meant for communal use. The authors say that these actions conflict with the Sustainable Development Goals which advocate for safe and inclusive public spaces for all. For example in the UK, there are many skate stoppers or other physical obstacles to prevent skateboarders from using their surfaces. While these obstacles are primarily used to protect property, this alienates the youth and disrupts social dynamics of public spaces. The article also presents case studies where inclusive design has been successfully implemented. For instance in Copenhagen’s Folkets Park, the community redesigned the park to accommodate diverse user needs, including the homeless through changes like zoned lighting and inclusive seating.
Application
Figure 1 illustrates how hostile architecture in Paris like anti homeless benches and concrete blocks pushed unhoused people out of public spaces ahead of the 2024 Olympics
WIRED
One recent example of defensive landscape architecture is the installation of large concrete blocks beneath the Pont de Stains bridge in Aubervilliers for the 2024 Olympic Games. This area used to be used as a shelter for many individuals including migrants and homeless people but in July 2024, authorities cleared the encampment and replaced it with immovable concrete blocks to prevent reoccupation. Although this was meant to make the city and area seem “clean” many argue that it’s actually a form of hostile architecture without offering sustainable housing solutions. This also showcases the concerns brought up by Binnington and Russo where the use of defensive design elements actually take away inclusivity and accessibility from public spaces.
Figure 2 explores the challenges of recreating traditional English style borders in American climates revealing how garden aesthetics can reflect access to resources that only some can afford
House Beautiful, November 1991, vol. 202, pg 32
Getting Real About Borders
The November 1991 “House Beautiful” article “Getting Real About Borders” by Ken Druse reflects the themes from Binnington and Russo’s “Defensive Landscape Architecture in Modern Public Spaces” through its showcasing of English style borders. While the article celebrates the beauty of mixed plantings, it also highlights the challenges of recreating and maintaining the design. Since these designs need constant maintenance, constant staff attention, and constant pruning, it makes the landscape exclusive and only available to the privileged. This reflects the critique in Binnington and Russo’s article where they discuss that certain landscape designs are visually appealing but have the ability to exclude less privileged users.
Comparison
The current case in Paris, with large concrete blocks placed under a bridge to steer away homeless people is a clear example of defensive design as it uses harsh materials to keep certain people out of a public space. In comparison, the House Beautiful article from November 1991 talks about English-style gardens that, while beautiful, are hard to maintain and remain somewhat exclusive. These gardens aren’t physically exclusive, but they still create barriers as only people with enough resources can realistically have them. While the current case in Paris is more aggressive and seen from the public eye, the House Beautiful case still connects even though it is more private. Both cases simply use design that excludes others whether it was meant to or not.
May 22, 2025 | Week 8
This article written by Dianne Harris from the University of Washington explores the constructs of race in Architecture by critically exploring the photographic work of Julius Shulman- particularly the photos done of Case Study House. Harris sets up the framework of this discussion around how race has not been addressed much at all by architectural education or the profession as the profession has historically been led by white men in positions of power- despite the fact that our exterior and interior environments have been shaped by a racial and often weaponized intent. Shulman’s own status as an Architectural photographer was made possible by close relationships with architects like Raphael Soriano and magazine editor John Entenza. Ultimately Harris states that her intent is not to call out Shulman for being racist or for to suggest his work was made with those intention, but rather she is aiming to make clear that “the pervasive nature of racism in the united states makes it nearly impossible for whites especially – but also non whites to be untouched by racism power to own portions of every mind and soul…”
I really appreciate this article both for its thesis and stance on the subject but also for the way that she frames her argument. Harris is looking at our cultural content not for what is being said loudly but for what is not being said and or show, it is the erasure and the absence rather than the content itself, and through this the complicity in its power to help white supremacy. The photograph in question of Case Study House, according to Shulman was “undoubtedly the most widely published architectural photograph ever taken” and what it speaks to is an image of whiteness, gender, property, privilege and modernism that became internationally know and recognized. It was interesting to read about the “iconic girls”‘ in the photo and the history / decision in their positioning in the architecture. facing out towards the city vs. looking at one another. It is clear that the job of the “iconic girls” was to sell this home with a “domestic security and conviviality”. As Harris states the photograph is both a frame and a lens- it frames and filters a racialized view of the 20th century- embodying segregation.
“At Last: recliners that are beautiful living room chairs too”House Beautiful, Volume 115. Pt. 1, 1973, p. 82
When relating this image back to House Beautiful it is similar in many way in which that magazine portrays life and sells images of status both to women but also to the greater cultural narrative. Women were then and unfortunately still now used as a product and prop in advertising. The woman (read White woman) is there to legitimize and sexualize the product in a way for a man to be intersted into the space. For example in the photo above the woman is standing over the empty recliner looking longingly at it. Positioning herself almost as if there is someone already in the chair. Yes she is there to sell the chair but moreover she is selling an image of a lifestyle that a man would want to be in this chair with a woman in her nightgown standing beside him.
Ad. for Architectural Digest
2025
In a similar but slightly different way we of course still have the sexulization of women helping to sell us both capital as well as ideologies. But not we have largely have the celebrity cult culture running the advertising for our home interiors and products. When you go to Architectural Digest you can choose a custom celebrity shopping line so that you can have the same “taste” and display of wealth as the celebrity in which we are being told to worship. This make me thing of the larger discussion over the inherit “morality of taste” When we have the culture of celebrity co signing we need not wonder if we are “out of fashion”
May 22, 2025 | 1920s, reaction paper, Week 8
Dianne Harris in The Lens of Race: Whiteness and Architectural Photography at Case Study House #22, articulates the impact of architectural photography on culture, race, and gender roles, both in the 60s when the photos were taken and even to present day. Much like any other art form, photography has an element of the artist’s bias baked into each photo. How a scene is captured, what the frame allows in or leaves out, what angle is utilized to give a certain feeling, etc.; all factors representing the story the photographer is trying to portray through their imagery. Harris mentions Shulman’s photographs are, “treated largely as documentary” rather than a subjective piece of art, but when observing the images with a lens about cultural dynamics of the 60s, there is a clear agenda being pushed. Photography, as it has developed as a technology has racial predeterminations built into it, from proper exposure, to development, all intended to properly render white individuals as standard.
Much like Le Corbusier’s Modulor being modeled after the average white European man, a large portion of the population is left out of consideration (intentionally) in order to associate the ideal standard of living, as one without minorities. Celebrating white culture and the architecture that perpetuates and reinforces that culture. Observing Shulman’s photograph of the Stahl residence (Case Study House #22), women are posed in white dresses, sitting upright in an illuminated box of glass, suspended above the night cityscape of Los Angeles. Suddenly, when looking past the beautiful architecture of the 1960’s home, and viewing the image with a critical lens of race and gender, the objectivity of the image washes away, and the subjectivity begins to show. The subjectivity of the “ideal home” in the 60s is a clear motive of the photographer.
Figure 1. (Left) “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” by Roger Fenton: Cannonballs on the side of the road
Figure 2. (Right) “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” by Roger Fenton: Cannonballs on the road
This reading reminded me of one of the first notable attempts at emotional manipulation of viewers via photography: “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” by Roger Fenton. This photo displays a battlefield of the Crimean War in 1855, in which cannonballs are strewn about after a vicious battle. There are two versions of this photograph, one including the cannonballs off to the side of the road, the other featuring them in the middle of the road, as the main subject of the image. Photographer Roger Fenton wanted to capture the violence that had torn its way though the landscape and decided to move the cannonballs to be more obvious, and draw the viewers attention to them. This was a highly controversial attempt at altering the story in what should have been a strictly documentative approach to capturing the war, so much so, it is still talked about it photography classes to this day. This image altered people’s views on the subjectivity versus the objectivity of photography and its ability to be manipulated like any other medium.
Figure 1.HouseBeautiful 1925: Vol 58 Iss 3 pg. 7 – Anaconda Brass Pipe Advertisement
Caption: “2/3 of You is Water”
Figure 2. HouseBeautiful 1926: Vol 60 Iss 3 pg. 118 – Camel Advertisement
Caption: “When Indian summer days are come – when with gay companions you saunter over the friendly fields – have Camel!”
I believe what is more important in the HouseBeautiful magazines is not what examples I could find, rather what examples I couldn’t find. Flipping through these magazines, rarely, if ever, will a person of color be included in any of these advertisements or articles. The vast majority of what is featured in these magazines are the ideal white life, including specified gender roles for both men and women, and even the roles of the ideal children, each figure placed and posed to properly relay what is expected of readers in society during the printing of these magazines.
May 22, 2025 | 1950s, Week 8
In the article, “The Lens of Race: Whiteness and Architectural Photography at Case Study House #22.” Dianne Harris argues that the iconic architectural photography functions as a visual reinforcement of the upper-middle-class, white identity, ignoring the racial and social differences. She discusses the idea that the image romanticizes domestic modernism in a way that makes whiteness the central goal and seems desirable, even though the goal is actually neutrality and universality. She also critiques the role of architectural photography in promoting this vision, highlighting how the imagery had a role in helping to shape the public’s knowledge of modern living in racialized terms. While doing this, readers are forced to reconsider the role race has within the mid-century architectural representation.
The first supporting point is that the image of the Case Study House #22 presents a sterilized and exclusionary view of what modern domestic life is like. The photo shows two women gazing out over the Los Angeles skyline at night, reinforcing the idea that the modern home and by extension the future, is white space. This exclusion is a conscious choice to reflect a broader pattern of postwar American housing policies and media that marginalize people of color. By emphasizing the people that are included and the people that are excluded, Harris spotlights the implicit racial politics that are embedded in architectural representation.
The second supporting point focuses on the aesthetic conventions of modernist photography, which Harris argues contribute to whiteness as a visual idea. She highlights how composition, setting, and lighting in the photography by Shulman work together to create calm, clarity, and order in the photo which are traits associated with modernist design and thus with white identity. The elements are not racially neutral though instead they work to connect whiteness with modernity, control over spaces, and sophistication.
Fig 1. Modernfold Door
House Beautiful, October, 1951, no. 93 pt. 2
“‘Modernfold’ doors by New Castle Products, Furnishings by L. S. Ayres & Company, Indianapolis, Indiana”
This shows a house that is designed specifically for the sterotypical white family model where the father works and the wife takes care of the kids. It shows how the door makes it easy to close the kids off from the father while he works.
Fig 2. Small Space Living
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/small-space-living-with-kids-how-parents-make-room-for-themselves
This is a photo showing a small family space and how parents make the space work for their family even though its not the most ideal space.
