All around the UK, spikes are installed on benches and other flat surfaces in public spaces as a hostile arms-length method of deterring rough sleepers.

UK artist Stuart Semple has teamed up with Manchester-based agency TBWA\MCR on a campaign called Stop Homelessness Spiking, which makes use of the spikes to expose the callousness of these architectural features.

“Life is hard enough for people forced to live on the streets. We were shocked to discover this type of design exists and in some cases is commissioned by our own councils,” says TBWA\MCR executive creative director Gary Fawcett, who worked on the campaign alongside fellow ECD Lisa Nichols. “We felt compelled to create something that would help to raise awareness and educate people on the harsh reality of living rough.”

Posters depicting people in sleeping bags or lying on cardboard have been embedded in real locations where there are surfaces covered in spikes. The spikes skewer the posters, creating a harrowing image that seems likely to draw people’s attention to a prevalent design feature that most don’t notice day to day.

“Hostile design is so insidious that it’s often easy to miss the true intention of it. Raising awareness so that people can spot what’s happening in the public realm for me has always been the first step in shifting the culture,” says Semple, who runs an organisation dedicated to the issue.

“At the end of the day, design shouldn’t be perverted to harm the vulnerable and city planners and designers should be using their talents to include, nurture and support communities.”

tbwamcr.com; hostiledesign.org