NyxJan 15, 2023
Joseph Kohlmann
@[email protected] These are anti-homeless benches 🤬 https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/109692363471576140
Aral Balkan (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image This makes me very angry. These are anti-homeless benches designed to look pleasing. It’s called hostile architecture. They’re meant to be uncomfortable to discourage sleeping on. The people who designed these are assholes. They’re decorators, not designers. A designer makes things to improve the world for everyone. A decorator takes otherwise unpalatable injustices and disguises them with aesthetics in an attempt to make them inoffensive or even desirable. Be a designer, not a decorator.

Aral’s Mastodon
Jan 15, 2023 at 10:56amElk
Show threadKohan IkinJan 15, 2023

@jkohlmann That's not true. The originals were a project in 2014 by the UK National Literacy Trust and Wild In Art to promote reading and art in public. Each was painted by a different artist:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/jul/02/books-about-town-find-londons-literary-benches-and-share-your-photos

Aral has shown no evidence for his claim that the chairs were created as anti-homeless devices.

Books about town: find London's literary benches and share your photos

London has become a literary playground: a project by the National Literacy Trust has scattered 50 book-shaped benches across the capital for the summer, each dedicated to an iconic author or character. Will you help us find them?

The Guardian