Anti Anti-Homeless Spikes

Turning travesties of urban design into hospitable spaces.

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These anti-homeless spikes are brutal. We need to get rid of them | Leah Borromeo

‘Defensive architecture’ is a cynical attempt to sweep away poverty and inequality. Better Than Spikes want to make our urban spaces more inclusive

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List of books now available at the Curtain Road Public Library:

James Meek PRIVATE ISLAND Owen Hatherley A NEW KIND OF BLEAK Wade Shepard GHOST CITIES John Gledhill THE NEW WAR ON THE POOR Bradley Garrett EXPLORE EVERYTHING: PLACE HACKING THE CITY Anna Minton GROUND CONTROL Danny Dorling ALL THAT IS SOLID Lynsey Hanley ESTATES: AN INTIMATE HISTORY Justin McGuirk RADICAL CITIES: ACROSS LATIN AMERICA IN SEARCH OF A NEW ARCHITECTURE Lisa McKenzie GETTING BY: ESTATES, CLASS AND CULTURE IN AUSTERITY BRITAIN And a paper by Andrew Harris called ART AND GENTRIFICATION: PURSUING THE URBAN PASTORAL IN HOXTON, LONDON

Feel free to read, relax or retire. Just leave the books behind for the people who come after you. Thanks.

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Space, Not Spikes is reclaiming the city's doorways

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Anti - Anti Homeless Spikes

"Living in a city, we bumble along from place to place in tightly martialed lines. We're told where we can walk, where we can sit, where we are welcome but only if we spend money. Or have it. It makes us neurotic and engenders a deep sense of 'otherness' in anyone who chooses to or simply cannot buy in to what currently passes for society and leisure. Anti-homeless spikes are part of that invention, Nothing says "keep out" to a person more than rows of sharpened buttplugs laid out to stop people from enjoying or using public space. Space, Not Spikes came from the anger of public/private space inequity. We chose the Curtain Road location because of its resonance with artists. Round the corner and down the road were the studios and spaces used by artists who couldn't afford anywhere else to live and work. This particular site is where the nightclub Plastic People used to live. It had a Vietnamese restaurant on top of it that vibrated on weekends.  Now, we have spikes. Now, we're looking at poor doors and architecture designed to keep them 'right' people in and the 'wrong' people out. Regardless of whether you own, rent or even have a home, the streets are ours."​

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Feel free to read these books and leave them behind for the people after you.

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16.07.15

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