To the homeless and many socially excluded people the city´s streets, stations and public places are where they spend most of their days and nights. But their presence is far from always welcome and many property owners and city developers aim to move them to other areas using Exclusionary Design that is either physical i.e. leaning benches or iron spikes and by law and regulations.  

The project “Exclusionary Design - social exclusion in urban spaces” investigates how a combination of design and law in the public urban spaces in Denmark serves the purpose of rejecting socially vulnerable and homeless people and aim to force them out of the cities`public spaces. An effect that go directly against Sustainable Development Goal number 11 that targets sustainable cities and the ability of cities to embrace diversity and include socially vulnerable people. 

We investigate how social exclusion is created via design of urban spaces and how widespread it is along with social exclusion by criminalization. We also ask, how does it feel to be subject to Exclusionary Design and criminalization and will create a number of tools that can enable dialogue between homeless people, NGOs, municipalities, property owners and authorities. 

Project funded by the VELUX Foundations

Contact

Ole B. Jensen - Department of Architecture, Design & Media Technology