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In collaboration with the advertising firm TBWA, artist Stuart Semple launched an OOH (Out-of-Home) campaign against hostile architecture this past July 2024. By hostile architecture, we’re referring to design elements in public spaces intended to keep people away. Specifically, Semple focuses on features integrated into urban environments that aim to prevent homeless individuals from finding shelter. Some examples you might have come across include metal spikes placed in doorways to make sleeping impossible, or metal dividers installed on benches to prevent people from lying down. According to Semple, "[Hostile design] is a perversion of creativity, something used against humanity." Almost invisible to the untrained eye, these additions to public spaces actually work against the very idea of what “public” should mean, putting an already vulnerable part of the population at an even greater disadvantage. By making the campaign's photographs life-sized, Semple makes the message all the more striking and immediate, confronting viewers with the full scale of this silent, yet violent, reality. Some of the slogans featured in the campaign read, "As if being homeless isn’t painful enough," and "Homelessness is spiking," drawing sharp attention to the absurdity of investing in hostile infrastructure rather than supporting homeless individuals. Instead of focusing efforts on helping people off the streets and into shelter, these measures make public spaces increasingly unwelcoming.
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