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 Where I live we have some of these book benches as a sort of tribute to a local company called Ladybird which made iconic early reader books for kids. They look great but I can confirm that they are massively uncomfortable to sit on for more than a couple of minutes! #HostileArchitecture
@zleap @aral On the flip side, I asked my local council if my company could fund some (normal!) benches in one of our green spaces, and they said... "we would be cautious in putting in seating that could possibly be damaged and could also give the youths an area to sit which is what we are trying to deter" 🧐