About
Hostile Architecture is a board game I developed in my Experimental Games class at USC where you play as a property developer trying to defend your properties from homeless people. Upgrade your properties with hostile features to protect their value, and strategically balance your new developments.
Hostile Architecture is any architectural or design features that augment public spaces to make them intentionally uncomfortable or unwelcoming for specifically targeted groups (homeless people, skaters, the elderly, to name a few examples). The most egregious examples include benches with strategically placed armrests to make them impossible to lie down on, bumps on railings and planters to prevent skateboarders from grinding on them, spikes or rocks under shelter from the rain so people cannot setup shelter there, and sprinklers or speakers going off at night and making it impossible to rest securely. Features of hostile architecture raise the question of the true nature of “public” spaces, and if they can truly be considered public if those spaces are purposefully exclusionary.
This game ultimately encourages the players to consider how the practice of Hostile Architecture shapes their public spaces, and question who those public spaces are actually designed for. Can a community be beautiful when it’s riddled with spikes, speakers, and sprinklers to hide what’s undesirable about it? Or is the most beautiful community one that has the infrastructure to support all of its residents? And in order to solve a problem as complex as homelessness, is Hostile Architecture misaimed and addressing the symptoms instead of the cause….or could it be that Hostile Architecture is a symptom itself of what causes homelessness in the first place?
Downloads
Click here to download the Board Game (PDF will open in new tab).
Click here to view the rules (Document will open in new tab).
Hostile Architecture 2.0
I was invited to showcase Hostile Architecture at the 2021 USC Games Expo. I took that as an opportunity to revamp the game with updated art and rules.
Click here to play the game using Tabletop Simulator.
Click here to view the updated rules.