An Archaeology of hostile hydrology: The closing of the urban commons and its effects on Perth’s ‘Streeties’ (original) (raw)

2015, Poster - 2015 Australian Archaeological Association Conference

Urban architecture has become hostile architecture. At least it is for Western Australia’s approximately 14,000 homeless people, about 8,000 of whom live in Perth’s CBD. An insidious implementation of ‘defensive’ architectural and related measures such as move-on ordinances and regulation of soup kitchen locales - have made the streets hard to live on. ‘Homelessness’ is often a misnomer. Many ‘streeties’ have made the streets home though long-term, networked relationships, practical interventions, and creative subversions. Alleyways, parks, and interstitial spaces have been used – and mostly tolerated - by property owners and authorities. But over the last 5 years these spaces have been closed up literally and through ‘anti-social behaviour’ laws. Streeties, who practice a highly social way of life, have contested this closure, but their struggle has elicited a disturbing lack of empathy from non-streeties. Archaeologists, architects and anthropologists are able to recognise, analyse, and propose alternatives to this wilful ignorance of an enduring social issue. Our 2015 spatial survey of four sites in Perth’s CBD and penumbra ‘saw’ traces of homelessness through examining official efforts to eradicate, hide, or move on what property owners consider an ‘unsightly’ streetie society. We are not concerned with the archaeology of homelessness but with the architectural and related responses to it - such as barriers, benches designed not to be slept on, sprinklers, alarms, manipulation of landscaping, and hindering access to water and ablutions. Interestingly, within authority regimes there is some tolerance - and even enabling - of street living. Homelessness costs Perth at least $75 million per annum – and hostile architecture adds to this cost absolutely and socially. We propose a recognition of ‘streeties’ as legitimate, long-term dwellers and title-holders of the city’s spaces-in-common. We also recognise the street as a legitimate dwelling space. This approach may help re-humanise hostile architecture.