The article by Allegra Kirkland discusses the five types of defensive architecture cities use to exclude certain groups of people. Kirkland talks about how cities and private spaces use defensive architecture like spikes, sprinklers, checkpoints and divided benches to exclude the poor, specifically the homeless. In addition to this, cities also use aural methods like playing unpleasant sounds to prevent people from selling or sleeping around businesses. Kirkland uses the example of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium which played an industrial sound track to keep people from sleeping on the steps.

I chose this article because it relates with my 7th annotated bibliography which focused on the use of spikes and expands on the different methods of defensive architecture being used in cities to exclude the homeless. This source also relates to the built environment setting found here in Atlanta. Most of the methods mentioned in Kirkland’s article can be seen in use throughout Atlanta. For example, some parks and businesses in Atlanta do use split benches, sprinkler systems, checkpoints and spikes to prevent the homeless from using those areas.