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50 Times People Spotted Stupid Design Decisions In Public Places And Just Had To Share
We often form our opinion of a city by judging the quality of its public spaces. If they give us a hard time, most likely we won't be too psyched about returning to it.
And unfortunately, there are plenty of ways urban planners and interior designers ruin our everyday life and force us into dreadful anxiety-inducing situations.
They make us sit on uncomfortable benches, walk around trippy floors, and go number two in bathroom stalls so revealing, others are able to see our facial expressions.
To show how ridiculous it can get, Bored Panda has put together some of the worst public space "solutions" ever created—we deserve better!
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The Chairs Waiting For You In The Laser Eye Clinic's Reception
"I'm Sure You're All Wondering Why I've Gathered You Here Today"
To learn more about the topic, I got in touch with interior architect and lecturer of interior design at Vilnius College of Design, Judita Striukienė.
When we hear the term public space, we usually think of the outdoors. "Places like parks, gardens, and squares are often popular city attractions," Striukienė told Bored Panda. "They not only provide environmental and recreational benefits but also form a city's identity."
No Words Needed Here
As If Public Toilets Didn’t Give Me Enough Anxiety
However, public spaces can also be indoors. "These interiors can be both functional and aesthetic," Striukienė said.
"Think of health service establishments, for example. A well-executed professional interior design can even have a positive effect on the patients. It can relieve their stress and put them in a calmer state of mind."
In fact, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, the co-founder of the architecture firm Snøhetta, argues that architects must begin considering indoor space just as public as outdoor space.
"Maybe with the sole exception of railway stations, public space is generally understood as outdoor space," Thorsen wrote. "Whether in the United States or in Europe, especially now with heightened concerns around security, there seems to be this determined way of privatizing everything that is indoors, even as we are increasingly aiming to improve access to public space outdoors. But in the layered systems of our cities of the future, we will need to focus on the public spaces that are found inside buildings—and make them accessible."
At First Glance, I Didn’t Recognize This Restaurant Mural As The Sun
To get his point across, Thorsen highlighted a map of Rome made in 1748 by Giambattista Nolli. It only had two distinctions—what was private and what was public. "Whether it was indoor or outdoor, whether there was a church space or a plaza, it didn't really matter. [The map] told a different story of the city."
"There are some examples from today—the roof of our Oslo Opera House is outdoors, for instance, but it's on the building and publicly accessible. Opening up the Louvre and trying to let people walk through it 24 hours a day—as with the museum's recent takeover by the artist JR—is another way of not making a distinction between indoor and outdoor public space."
This Fountain That Looks Like A Perfect Place To Sit Down
I wonder how many people realised that when it was to late...
Gas Station In Nebraska. The Station's Color Scheme Was Red. They Tried To Get Artsy
No Broken Legs I Know Of
Thorsen thinks such decisions are essential to the way new architecture typologies develop, and architects should definitely have an influence on them.
"In certain situations, accessibility to indoor public space is enough," he said. "In other situations, you have to define the program for the particular indoor or outdoor spaces to be adequate. To use the example of the roof of the Opera House in Oslo again, it was basically programmed only for one thing, and that's to be walked on, for a promenade. But on occasion, it could be reprogrammed to hold an outdoor concert. Or it could be reprogrammed against the original intention by skaters or by a biker who actually drives his motorbike up and down the roof."
Flat Carpet In A Hotel In Cologne, Germany Imitating A Curvy Surface
Fake Hope Escalator
The Design Of My School - This Is The Place Where Every Hallway Intersects
Two Windows Of My Workplace Are Constantly Fighting For The Honor Of Being The One Who Is Going To Be Opened
The city belongs to its citizens. No matter if we're talking about what's inside or outside. And, according to Thorsen, these two dimensions can even intertwine.
"Maybe the outdoor can be programmed in such a way that it unlocks the possibility of the public spaces indoors. There's always a bit of urban planning in designing interiors. There's always a bit of interior design in an urban space. There's no question that interior architecture is professionalizing itself as well—interior architects are not seen as decorators of interior space anymore. The same is true of landscape architects. And those are only the traditional design professions," the architect said.
The Single Worst Clock I Have Ever Seen. I Actually Said Aloud "Whyyy"
They Built This School Like One Month Ago
Ballroom Where Everyone Downstairs Can See Up Your Skirt
This Is Not Rust. “It’s The Design”
Of course, that doesn't mean that every architect needs to be trained in every specialized profession. What Thorsen meant was that the industry is lacking an overall understanding of how people should collaborate.
"That's why we've introduced transposition as a working method in our office, where you not only sit around tables with a lot of specialists, but you actually swap professions during creative workshops," he said. "The only thing that can save the essence of architecture is some kind of collaborative model like this."
I Love Eating At Restaurant Logo Here
This Fancy Staircase Leads Directly Into A Wall
This Chandelier At A Restaurant I Ate At Bothers Me So Much
This Picture In McDonald's Was Hung Sideways
By adopting this model both in education and practice, Thorsen believes we would be better equipped to fully understand the effects of programming.
"We are usually generalists enough to understand that a change of use is sometimes demanded and that we shouldn't try to desperately hold on to certain kinds of programming. But the profession itself should, in my opinion, really contain that kind of knowledge, simply because it’s so tightly connected to the actual design task."
As these pictures show, we need to improve the relationship between buildings and the public. And Thorsen thinks there's no way we can do that without getting directly involved in programming ourselves.
Designed For Dissuading The Homeless. Literally Just Uncomfortable For Everyone Else
There's a special place in hell reserved for the people who order/design furniture against homeless people
My favorite act of vandalism is to pop the ones the city has installed on super long concrete benches out. A pry bar will dislodge them from the concrete with very little effort and no damage. 1 or 2 per week while out for a walk through and most of our benches are fixed now.
Load More Replies...I don't like how city developers purposely design everything to keep certain people away from a place. They especially want more concrete, less greenery and people who spend a lot of money because if you don't see the homeless, it seems like they don't exist and that contributes to the perfect shopping experience. It's a sad sad world and I want to get of.
Guess youve never stepped in homeless poop on accident. The country needs to start making areas where homeless can thrive rather than opportunizing metropolitan areas. Its an easy and cheap solution.
Load More Replies...How broken must a society be to specially design things to make life even more uncomfortable for those who are already on the bottom?
America has been doing it since it stole the land from the Natives, slaughtered them and enslaved black and asians. This is nothing new.
Load More Replies...Idk about you but the top of the middle part looks real comfy, like a little hammock
What a waste of money. Guaranteed that bench has a much higher price tag to produce/buy than a regular, usable one. They could have just made the benches shorter, but instead opted to waste funds giving a visual middle finger to the homeless.
If you understood anything about the homeless, your comment wouldn't be so ignorant. 99% are dealing with mental health problems and addiction. They do not want help. When they do, they present themselves to any social services agency, church or welfare organization and they receive the help they need if they are willing to follow the rules that all members of society are expected to follow. Try enjoying your time visiting San Francisco, Los Angeles or any other large city & see how much you enjoy stepping in human feces, or having a mixture of urine and feces left to ferment in a bottle thrown at you, stepping around needles, people nodding off, exposing themselves, m#sturb@ting openly, vomit, garbage, etc. Draped over every bench or flat surface. Do they have more rights than you? No!
Load More Replies...There is a homeless man that hangs outside the rear door of our thrift shop. People leave furniture there after closing hours. One morning we caught him sleeping in a recliner wearing only his tidy whities. Well, not really white. We have tried to help him, but he always refused.
Or Shizuo Heiwajima. Either way, it looks like the carnage of what once was a bench
Load More Replies...This is in a transit station in Philadelphia. It is an art installation, meant for sitting at the ends and leaning in the middle. It's actually pretty clever. For those annoyed that this might be anti-homeless, you would have had to pay a fare to be anywhere near this bench. Most homeless people in the system have fare jumped. Also, the expectation for a poorly funded transit agency to resolve and police homelessness is just completely ridiculous. This is an issue for the City.
That station's actually in Upper Darby, but IIRC they've been installed at places in the city too. It's true SEPTA is poorly-funded but they also seem to have a talent for making monumentally incompetent decisions. Remember that this is the same system that bought trolleys that turned out to be too wide for the tunnels they run in, had to pull over 100 train cars from service because their low-budget wheels kept falling off, and has spent a decade and gone almost $200m over budget building an electronic fare system that's still not completely functional. A demonic bench design is par for the course.
Load More Replies...This is in my city, Philly. I was just here the other day and I'd like to note it's extremely uncomfortable for ALL PEOPLE, housed and unhoused alike. Hostile architecture should be considered a cruel and unusual punishment for the crime of poverty and/or mental illness and joblessness.
I don't get this. Do I want a homeless person sleeping in my garden? No! So DON'T STOP THEM FROM SLEEPING IN THE DARN PARKS!!!
While many homeless are drug (including alcohol) addicts or mentally ill, there are also people who lose everything when they get cancer, MS, heart attacks, etc, or injuries, especially injuries that will never heal. I have seen a man with terminal cancer and his dog live and die in a vehicle parked in an industrial area and I have also seen a man missing an arm begging. There are also foster children thrown out on their 18th birthday. Social Security Disability often screws people and you can't live on it anyway. Most older people don't have anyone to take care them in; their parents are dead, their aunts and uncles are dead and most brothers and sisters either hate each other or don't care. They move long distances away and become like strangers to each other. If there are adult children, they are often in small apartments, in college dorms, in the military, or renting a room in someone's home. I've seen it all even with people I know.
Load More Replies...City installing furniture against homeless just painfully admits it's so shitty place to live that it's just simpler for them to inflict more pain and misery towards people than actually help them.
Uh, I'm totally for helping homeless people get better living circumstances, but how do you figure a city is a bad place to live -because- it has a lot of homeless? I'm not saying homeless should just find somewhere else but they wouldn't be in cities at all if there weren't advantages to being there.
Load More Replies...So...for all its length, it could have decently accommodated around five people by the looks of it. And instead, just two usable seats and the rest - wasted material and malevolence all around. So much brain strain just to prevent some already downcast people from having at least a place to rest. Don't we wish sometimes that the artisans of such things would get someday to try to rest on their own creations?...
This is in Philly and they have a large homeless population. Instead of trying to find solutions for the poverty that's hurting people in your city you do sick s**t like this. I lived in Philly and as soon as I saw the design of their new benches I knew exactly why they made it that way. Very shameful and sad.
There's a nice place to lie down right in the middle, on top of the dip.
This is actually in Philadelphia. The Market-Frankford Elevated line stations have these benches. They actually aren't too uncomfortable, just not big enough for several people.
Those things can be miserable if you're a visitor and carrying a backpack or suitcase. WTH can you put it while you wait?
Load More Replies...This is my city, Philly. The bench design was not for homeless deteration but to deter graffiti and litter. The cat hammock on top is for leaning butts, as you do. The rest of the septa stations in Philly have normal concrete homeless loving benches.
"Let's be a d**k to those who have nothing!" - Said... A bunch of people, apparently...
I would put the bars in front of me, growling like a mad dog, foaming at the mouth and then.flash some puppy eyes and make that cry only puppies can make.
This is called "Hostile Architecture" and it's becoming more prevalent every day!
Because God forbid a homeless person ever finds a moment of peace or comfort.
Jokes on you, the homeless will have cardboard ready. Everyone else suffers.
My "favorite" is when they actually go to the trouble of putting a sleeping statue on the bench as a bronze middle finger to the homeless
Oh Philly you really hate the homeless! This is the market-franfort line or as the locals call the EL. Im so glad i dont live there anymore!
"Frankford", but yes. So much for all that Brotherly Love.
Load More Replies...Looks like a fish.... Uncomfortable as hell. 1 less place for the unfortunate homeless CANNOT lay their heads. Very cool dummies!! How's about instead of ugly, unwanted, probably not needed, things like THIS, you build a LOW INCOME 1room/1-bedroom apartment 4-plex. Help the homeless instead of shooting them away. I hope this person NEVER experiences homelessness, it:s NOT a nice position to be in, experience dictates.
Whoever Designed it is responsible for EVERYTHING that has & is & is going to happen
"Made so homeless people can't sleep on" you can't even sit on it for 10 minutes without sliding off
Actually it looks like the hulk tested his strength on a radiator
Load More Replies...Talk about being against the homeless Tennessee just passed a law that makes camping in public places a FELONY. I presume they must have enough housing to accommodate their homeless population.
what a heartless thing to do it's also useless bc u cant even sit on it, by what it looks, frankly, i wouldnt feel sorry if this was vandalized
Not only is think ugly, cruel and stupid, but it should also be illegal as it is ableist and causes major issues for people with disabilities.
That's modern art. It belongs in an art gallery or someone's private collection, not making life difficult for people trying to sit down or sleep.
Nope, Philadelphia. I've been to Europe and I've been to Philly. None of the six W. European countries I visited seemed to be so hostile to their less-fortunate citizens. OTOH Philly seems to be just trying to keep them invisible rather than fixing the underlying causes. For what it's worth the transit system is named SEPTA, which locals say stands for "Systematically Eliminating Public Transit Altogether".
Load More Replies...All I can see are fingers and things getting stuck in the grids..and a waste of unwelcome seating. Oh it is a sculpture ..ohh sorry.. .
If anyone wants to take a look at more examples just google "hostile architecture". Wikipedia has a decent article about it too.
No - I've visited there and found out it's intentionally hostile design, intended to discourage the homeless. Or commuters, visitors, students, ...
Load More Replies...Notice, the most uh, comfortable places to sit on this bench are the opposite ends, meaning this was built with pandemic conditions in mind. Nobody's sitting next to anybody on this bad boy!
I can see me napping with my head up on the slant feet dangling off the edge, what's the problem?
This bench was probably sitting on the ground waiting to be brought inside and installed when a truck backed up over it. They had to come up with the phony anti-homeless story to cover up the mistake.
Nope - when I was in Philly the same demonic design was used in a lot of stations.
Load More Replies...It's a metro station. It is actually dangerous if people sleep there and occupy the small strpe between the metro and the wall. Imagine a mother with a stroller has to pass by. In this case it's safer to prevent the homeless to sleep there. In the other cases hostile architecture is evil. But not here.
You went out of your way to spend more money to sign furniture waste metal and people's time just because you don't want a homeless person to sit on it..? Really...
I rememeber someone I once had known, said do a crime using a bum and then kill them, I was like they still have family a life he said not all of them do. I believe hes a serial killer . I'd say lmao but its not funny and I am genuinely worried for the homeless now.
He's a psychopath. The only good psychopath is a dead one.
Load More Replies...@Lou Is there?! They don't seem to have much respect for anything else around them. Unless you were seeing something entirely different than I see
@Lou, sorry, what is the last piece of furniture/art/ respite that you have ever seen a homeless person Respect? Here's an idea: maybe you should open up your house to them. And let us know in 3 months how exonerated and fulfilled you truly feel. I'll be waiting.......
Large majority of homeless are mentally ill or addicts. We need insane asylums again and stop coddling these people. We're turning into a 3 world country!! No government benefits if you're on drugs or alcohol either!!!
What about the ones who aren't? The hard working people who come out of hospitals homeless because their lives were ruined by drunk drivers or some accident or who can't pay their rent anymore because of some chronic illness? Treat them like s**t in top of everything else? Torture them even more?
Load More Replies...Its not designed against homeless people, its designed so that everyone can use it. Otherwise, what should be for everyone is taken by a few for their exclusive use.
How exactly can 'everyone' use it, when it clearly can't be used by hardly anyone? Apart from the fact that it looks extremely uncomfortable to even sit on, at least a third of the original seating space has been made unusable for the purpose for which it was originally designed! Why install seating for people to sit on and then buckle it in such a brutal way that it can hardly be used to sit on at all? And if the purpose of these monstrosities is not to stop people who have nowhere else to sleep from laying down occasionally to rest - then what is the purpose?
Load More Replies...This Painting Inside A Local “Fancy” Restaurant
$1 Toothbrushes Locked Behind Glass At Walmart. Walked Around The Store For 15 Minutes Looking For Someone “Qualified” To Unlock The Glass Case
Then had to be escorted to the register with said $1 toothbrush. I could walk out of here with an air fryer easier than a toothbrush
That's really odd. I've never seen regular toothbrushes locked up behind glass. Maybe there are some town hooligans going around stealing toothbrushes...
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn
This Restaurant In London (Waiters Love It)
Toilet Door With Another Door In It That Won't Stay Closed
You Gotta Pay Attention On These Stairs In A Cinema
My Bed At A Hotel I'm Staying In
So, you wake up, bonk your head at this, and then the flower pot falls on you
Public Restrooms With Reflective Surfaces
This Is Russia
This Is The Logo For A "New York Style" Pizza Place In Ponce, Puerto Rico
I Don't Know Why Brown Strings Is A Welcoming Wallpaper To This Toilet Entrance. It Just Feels Gross And Unwelcoming. I Mean, This Is A Public Place
These Restroom Stalls Have Translucent Doors
This New Wall Art In My Office
Upon Walking In This Bathroom At The Supermarket I Was Initially Disgusted At Filth And Lack Of Cleanliness Until A Closer Look Revealed It Was Designed This Way
And it is designed that way so you don't see the filth that is definitely still there.
The Lobby Of This Medical Office Has An Alligator In The Floor
Not Exactly The Color Pattern You Like To See In A Bathroom
"Not the pattern you want to see in the bathroom"? OK, I'll bite: Where on earth would you want to see this pattern?
Love To Shutterstock See This Kind Of Stuff
They didn't just print the stock photo without noticing, someone hand painted this with the stock photo as reference 💀💀💀
The Paint In This Public Restroom
Sometimes People Use The Left Part
The Decorations On This Hotel Restaurant
This Poster In My School Cafeteria Is So Badly Designed They Put Arrows So You Can Read It Correctly
I'm Sure This Mirror Sounded Cool In Theory
Not Sure If This Belongs Here But In My Opinion This Is The Real Problem With America. It's A Toilet Stall If You Were Wondering
New Toilets At Work, Wonderful View On Our Interior Courtyard
These Trash Cans At My School
Given their outdated school logo, I would say awareness of racism isn't their forté.
A Poster At My Mom's Audiology Office
I Had To Stop While Ordering Food At A Local Restaurant Because I Saw This Poster
50me mials lldo ionat ned. Ah yes. Just summoning a demon. Don't mind me.
Went In To A Bathroom In Airport And Was Surprised With This. Almost Turned Towards Exit Before Realization
Note: this post originally had 129 images. It’s been shortened to the top 49 images based on user votes.
How do some things even get finished without someone somewhere saying that it is a bad idea. To all to all those companies with tiles that look like that have poo on them, were you drunk when you designed it and all the way through to conception?
Because someone is getting paid. They don't care that it is screwed up. They just finish the job so they can collect their pay check. They are not going to wait for some on to correct the problem, which could take weeks, months or longer.
Load More Replies...This was so funny 😂😂😂😂I couldn't hold my laugh at all. I just keep questioning WHY?! JUST WHY?!
None of these people went to design school, they're just horrible people.
Load More Replies...So can you do one on excellent and functional design in the public space. For example, In Switzerland the airports have free luggage carts that are equipped to go up and down the escalators. Brilliant! We need more smart design and less "just gettin' by."
For those Brits (or just people in general who don't like the space between bathroom stall doors... such as myself), there was a stall like that at my school when I was a kid that had a crack directly aligned with the mirror. Anyone could look in the mirror at the right angle and see right where the toilet sat. Needless to say, barely anyone used this particular stall :)
I found the one with the hearing aid batteries hilarious. I love you can supposedly "hear" the Grand Canyon, Italy and Prague! Lmao?
I will never understand the “fashion, never function” aesthetic.
Yoh I looked at all these pictures n am shocked.peoples or designers have a s**t sense of humour .you really get some whacked stuff out there.thanks to the photographer for showing us these n making me laugh
Both my parents are engineers... Should I show them this or not?
I worked at a school where the teachers bathroom was also the supply closet. There were shelves and boxes of documents. And then they just put a toilet and a sink in there. Didn't seem sanitary *at all*
Or the other way around most likely. And no it's very unsanitary especially with COVID 19. The virus (found in fecal material) that people cough in that room lives on inanimate objects for 48 hours so could easily be spread to the entire school population within hours.
Load More Replies...It's entirely possible considering the enormous size of the internet, it's continual growth and the length of time in existence. You may have seen some but it doesn't mean others have.
Load More Replies...Sirs I am only saying that because I genuinely want to teach them the difference. I mean I'm 20 and I can read and write better than 25-30 year Olds and up, when I correct someone I'm not trying to be a grammar nazi I'm trying to teach them the proper way to spell and pronounce something. And yes I do believe teenage slang has a part to play because people will sit there and say u, ur, etc. I am only saying it could influence them not knowing the difference between your, you're, you've. And even words like they're, their, they've, I have seen those used wrong so many times and by people alot older than me. Not trying to be rude or mean towards anybody her I am just genuinely wanting to teach some of them. P.S. not talking about people who currently have A's in english, I'm talking about the ones who are failing. (and I'm also not talking about the ones who have reading/writing disabilities they get free passes)and sure I may not be a dictionary but when I read outloud and wrote back in middle school my teacher set me as a prime example for people in 8th grade.
P.s.s, just trying to teach older generations proper etiquette.
Load More Replies...How do some things even get finished without someone somewhere saying that it is a bad idea. To all to all those companies with tiles that look like that have poo on them, were you drunk when you designed it and all the way through to conception?
Because someone is getting paid. They don't care that it is screwed up. They just finish the job so they can collect their pay check. They are not going to wait for some on to correct the problem, which could take weeks, months or longer.
Load More Replies...This was so funny 😂😂😂😂I couldn't hold my laugh at all. I just keep questioning WHY?! JUST WHY?!
None of these people went to design school, they're just horrible people.
Load More Replies...So can you do one on excellent and functional design in the public space. For example, In Switzerland the airports have free luggage carts that are equipped to go up and down the escalators. Brilliant! We need more smart design and less "just gettin' by."
For those Brits (or just people in general who don't like the space between bathroom stall doors... such as myself), there was a stall like that at my school when I was a kid that had a crack directly aligned with the mirror. Anyone could look in the mirror at the right angle and see right where the toilet sat. Needless to say, barely anyone used this particular stall :)
I found the one with the hearing aid batteries hilarious. I love you can supposedly "hear" the Grand Canyon, Italy and Prague! Lmao?
I will never understand the “fashion, never function” aesthetic.
Yoh I looked at all these pictures n am shocked.peoples or designers have a s**t sense of humour .you really get some whacked stuff out there.thanks to the photographer for showing us these n making me laugh
Both my parents are engineers... Should I show them this or not?
I worked at a school where the teachers bathroom was also the supply closet. There were shelves and boxes of documents. And then they just put a toilet and a sink in there. Didn't seem sanitary *at all*
Or the other way around most likely. And no it's very unsanitary especially with COVID 19. The virus (found in fecal material) that people cough in that room lives on inanimate objects for 48 hours so could easily be spread to the entire school population within hours.
Load More Replies...It's entirely possible considering the enormous size of the internet, it's continual growth and the length of time in existence. You may have seen some but it doesn't mean others have.
Load More Replies...Sirs I am only saying that because I genuinely want to teach them the difference. I mean I'm 20 and I can read and write better than 25-30 year Olds and up, when I correct someone I'm not trying to be a grammar nazi I'm trying to teach them the proper way to spell and pronounce something. And yes I do believe teenage slang has a part to play because people will sit there and say u, ur, etc. I am only saying it could influence them not knowing the difference between your, you're, you've. And even words like they're, their, they've, I have seen those used wrong so many times and by people alot older than me. Not trying to be rude or mean towards anybody her I am just genuinely wanting to teach some of them. P.S. not talking about people who currently have A's in english, I'm talking about the ones who are failing. (and I'm also not talking about the ones who have reading/writing disabilities they get free passes)and sure I may not be a dictionary but when I read outloud and wrote back in middle school my teacher set me as a prime example for people in 8th grade.
P.s.s, just trying to teach older generations proper etiquette.
Load More Replies...