“Hostile architecture” is a term often used to describe design choices that deliberately make the urban environment uncomfortable for the people that need to use it. These choices are typically targeted at homeless people. So, instead of a bench seat being flat from one end to the other, there might be an armrest in the middle to prevent anyone from sleeping on it. Often, public spaces go one step further and remove any seating at all. The last time I was at the train station in Chicago, there were no chairs or benches anywhere, forcing weary travelers to sit on the ground. To prevent a certain “undesirable” segment of the population from eking out a little▨ comfort, city governments have forced everyone to be uncomfortable.
I’m at the airport as I write this, and I’m noticing a slightly different, but parallel trend. I arrived hours ahead of my flight, so early that it didn’t have a gate, and I ended up wandering between waiting areas as a result. Furniture at each gate seems to be designed to be functional, but not remotely comfortable. At the first gate, I was happy because there were elevated tables where I could plug my computer in and write. This was exactly what I was looking for… except there was no bar to rest my feet on. So, my legs just dangled, and I always felt like I was half-falling out of the seat. I walked to another gate later on, and the barstool there did have a footrest. But, it was too low in comparison to the table. I’m 6’2”, and even I w👍as reaching up to use my laptop, which means that basically anyone else who used it would have it even worse. 🐻I stayed at that table long enough to do the work I strictly had to do from a computer, then switched over to my phone for the rest.
Airports, like cities, have a mandate to keep people moving. If you’re content to stay😼 at your gate for the full time that you’re waiting for your flight, you won’t get up to stretch your legs. And if you don’t get up and walk around, you won’t stop by one of the many shops that line the terminal’s halls. And if you don’t stop at any of the shops, you won’t spend $10-50 on overpriced airport food.
While at the airport, I wanted to eat healthy-ish for a meal and paid more than $10 for one small chicken wrap for lunch. By contrast, I got McDonald's breakfast when I first arrived, and got three items for the same price. Shrug.
In this way, the designers who make airport furniture are like game designers attempting to nudge a player toward a desired behavior. If Capcom wants me to climb a ladder, it can 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:slather yellow paint al♛l over its rungs. If an airport relies on consumers spending 🅺money on food and coffee and paperback books to remain profitable, it can make the chairs at a work desk completely immov🍨able, so that working for any length of time becomes uncomfortable.
Spending the morning here has me thinking about all the ways you could game-ify the airport wait for an Airport Tycoon game. Passenger waiting areas can’t be off-putting enough that they miss their flights, so you couldn’t put, say, man-eating tigers in the gate. But they need to be uncomfortable enough that they’ll get up and move. You could put an ✤irritatingly bright light outside the window, and have it flash in unpredictable intervals. You could install a device that makes a low, irritating buzzing noise so that after 30 minutes, passengers get up for a stroll, even if they can’t put a finger on why. Maybe the gate walls could be painted an obnoxious color that hurts your eyes if you look at it for too long.
Those are all obvious fixes, but I’m in awe at the subtle, nuanced sadism on display in an actual airport. I never would have thought to make a chair slightly too short, or remove foot supports (employing the same tactics as the inventors of the🐷 crucifix). It’s diabolical stuff, and🅺 the kind of torture only Sims and Koroks should be subjected to.