Urban Hostility: CPTED, Hostile Architecture, and the Erasure of Democratic Public Space

Abstract

Free and open public space is essential to the health of urban living. In theory, it is purely neutral, acting as a social equalizer providing those of all backgrounds space to co-exist within the confines of the built environment. However, truly democratic public space has consistently been threatened and reduced in cities, affecting none more heavily than marginalized and impoverished populations. The creation of the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design agenda gave birth to hostile architecture, a detrimental form of urban exclusionism. By using hostile design typologies, cities can render public spaces unusable to undesirable citizens, and subsequently erase images of poverty, social decay, and public disorder. The ways in which CPTED and hostile architecture have led to the alarming erasure of free public space will be addressed and the consequences this has upon marginalized populations will be portrayed.

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