Word.ws English Dictionary

hostile architecture

hostile architecture noun: a type of architecture and design strategy for buildings, roads, park benches, etc, which aims to discourage homeless people, skateboarders, or others from sitting, sleeping, skateboarding or otherwise using a space, for example by covering it with spikes.

hostile architecture: a type of architecture and design strategy for buildings, roads, park benches, etc, which aims to...
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Noun

hostile architecture (uncountable)

  1. A type of architecture and design strategy for buildings, roads, park benches, etc, which aims to discourage homeless people, skateboarders, or others from sitting, sleeping, skateboarding or otherwise using a space, for example by covering it with spikes.
    • The Camden Bench is not an anomaly: more and more, our cities are being designed to keep those deemed as ‘undesirables’ out. By its very nature this is ‘hostile architecture’—urban design with a focus on exclusion, design that inhibits community and tells us who is welcome and who is not.2020, Noreena Hertz, The Lonely Century, →ISBN
    • On a human level, the new facility [Moynihan Train Hall] is a disaster. Like so many other places defined by the principles of hostile architecture, there's almost nowhere to sit, lest a homeless person might find a place to take a nap.2025 April 19, Jacob Silverman, “Welcome to Slop World”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16

Questions about hostile architecture

What does hostile architecture mean?
Hostile architecture means a type of architecture and design strategy for buildings, roads, park benches, etc, which aims to discourage homeless people, skateboarders, or others from sitting, sleeping, skateboarding or otherwise using a space, for example by covering it with spikes.
What part of speech is hostile architecture?
Hostile architecture is a noun.

Words near hostile architecture in the dictionary

  1. Hostettlers
  2. hosticide
  3. hostie
  4. hosties
  5. hostile
  6. hostile architecture
  7. hostile environment
  8. hostile possession
  9. hostile possessions
  10. hostile takeover
  11. hostile takeovers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hostile architecture (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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