Jake Kimmerer

1003407636
Praxis 1
November 12, 2016

The Camden Bench

A Look into Hostile Design and the Ethics of Engineering

In lecture 25, Professor Foster continued our discussion of hostile design by

presenting the Camden Bench, a type of bench from London, England neighbourhood
designed specifically to deter undesirable behaviour. The bench was designed with a
number of slopes and angles on its surface which prevents the homeless population
from using it as a sleeping surface. The angles of the bench also prevent skateboarders
from using it as a surface to perform tricks on. It
doesnt have any gaps or slits, preventing drugs from
being stashed. Finally, it has open spaces so that
bags can be placed behind a users legs in order to
reduce thefts. 1,2

As discussed in lecture, the Camden Bench is

extremely effective at what it was designed for, but its
design brings up a number of ethical issues. Although
the design of the bench accomplishes its main
intention of deterring unwanted activity, it directly
harms groups of people, such as the homeless, while benefiting others. Thinking as an
engineer, I find this situation extremely interesting as it brings into question how ethics
is applied to engineering, which is something I wanted to dig further into.1

As developing engineers, it is important to understand that everything we design

will have an impact on real people. The things we create make changes to the real
world and have a direct impact on the way our society operates and acts. From my
understanding, engineers look to solve problems that improve our society as a whole,
and have a duty to design with the public in mind as everything we do affects the lives
of real people. This idea is the very meaning behind the object that identifies us as
engineers: the Iron Ring. The Iron Ring was adopted as a symbol that serves as a
reminder to those who wear it that they have specific obligations essential to the ethical
performance of their duties3. However, with the existence of things such as hostile
design, it is obvious that there is no straightforward definition of engineering ethics;
ethical engineering is a mixture of shades of greys, not black and white.

I understand that designing with the intention of deterring unwanted activity can
be beneficial to society. Designing with the intention of reducing criminal activity and
keeping people safer is obviously a great benefit to people. But when a design is made
with the intention of benefiting society that directly harms another group of people, such
as the homeless, I find it much more difficult to accept it as a design that benefits
society as a whole.

As developing engineers, each and every single one us will need to make a
decision as to how we design. We will all need to choose our own ethics and morals
and apply them to how we work. At this point, I want to design things that only have
positive impacts on the world around me. But it is becoming ever clearer to me that it is
almost impossible to think of engineering in such a clear-cut way. Even with the best
intentions, a design can have negative impacts associated with it, whether it impacts a
group of people, the environment, or some other aspect of our society in an unwanted
negative way. However, that does not change my goal of fostering positive change in
our society.

No matter what sort of ethics and morals an engineer chooses to practice with, it
is crucial that we all understand that what we design has a direct impact on the people
around us. We will all need to individually choose whether or not we are comfortable
designing things that directly harm individuals, such as with hostile design, even if the
overall intention of the design is to benefit society. As is seen with the Camden Bench,
sometimes the benefit of one group of people is directly related to the hindrance of
another. These are the types of impacts we must be aware of as engineers. What we do
impacts the real world, and we must decide what sorts of lasting impacts we want to
make.
 References

1)Mars, R.(2016). Unpleasant design and hostile urban architecture. Retrieved from
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/unpleasant-design-hostile-urban-
architecture/, November 12, 2016.
2) Wikipedia. (2016). The Camden Bench. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden_bench#Criticism, November 12, 2016.

3) Bonikowsky, L. (2006). The Iron Ring. Retrieved from

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/iron-ring/, November 12, 2016.