Throughout history, people used different strategies to prohibit certain people from places they are not welcomed. For example, predominately white-owned businesses would post large signs outside their business saying, “No African-Americans allowed.” Legal scholars made it known that there are two methods of discrimination such as ordinances and social norms, but Schindler wants architecture to receive more attention because it is a form of discrimination.

We as human focus more on the physical environment instead of the features that are present. Schindler states, “one might think a simple aesthetic design decision to create a park bench divided into three seats with armrests separating those seats. Yet the bench prevented people—often homeless people—from lying down and taking naps.” Likewise, seeing bridges, dead ends, and street signs, a ton of people think that these are just features of the road, but it provides social inequality and control and constrains our behavior .

The planners of architecture fail to realize the concept of exclusion by design, also the impact on citizens and mainly focus on the urban framework. Nicholas Blomley calls this “traffic logic” which is the idea that engineers focus on the flow of pedestrians and traffic through space, rather than  having equal access for all. Architecture engineers need to understand that small and irrelevant architectural details can have a huge impact on people’s behavior and it is known as a regulation to the built environment

Legal scholars do not often speak about architecture as regulation, but race theorist and law scholars came across concepts about architecture, space, and place in the context of class and race. Spaces themselves have racial meanings for example, “Elise C. Boddie argues that places have racial identities based on their history of or reputation for exclusion and that courts should consider this racial meaning for purposes of racial discrimination claims.” The people who have somewhat of authority can determine who and who is not allowed in that certain area.

Regulation through architecture is less identifiable to the legislature, courts, and other powerful officials. Architectural officials may be aware of excluding certain people from certain places, but they do not feel like their decision should be analyzed. Schindler says, “Exclusion through architecture should be subject to scrutiny that is equal to that afforded to other methods of exclusion by law.”

One of the main architectural exclusion is the way public transportation are placed and designed. The bus stops and subway stations effect the built environment such as route decisions. The mobility of people is restricted because sometimes they are not able to access certain communities. Although people from every socioeconomic class uses public transportation in a city like areas, low-income and people of color mostly rely on public transportation. Those group of people has a hard time accessing other parts of the community.

These architectural exclusions are problematic and concerning because certain people such as people of color and low-income people are not able to access certain communities. Also, it effects people chances of getting wealthier job opportunities, but the only way to change these problems is making it known to the government and coming together as one.

Link: http://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/architectural-exclusion