The Poor Door: Annotated Bibliography 5

Osborne, Hilary. “Poor Doors: The Segregation of London’s Inner-City Flat Dwellers.” The Guardian 25 July 2014. The Guardian. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

In this article, the author, Hillary Osborne talks about the “poor doors” being constructed in London’s inner city flats. As newer flats are being constructed, separate entrances are being created, one for the poor and one for the rich. Osborne discusses how the richer entrances are well lit, well maintained and designed to be ascetically appealing. On the contrary, the “poor doors” are poorly maintained, dark and usually designed poorly. The lower income residents are also separated from their richer counterparts since they have different storage areas, waste management and usually little to no parking available. Osborne closes her article on how the “poor doors” are increasingly becoming common practice worldwide.
Left: Rich entrance. Right: Poor door entrance in alleyway. Image used from The Guardian.
Left: Rich entrance.
Right: Poor door entrance in alleyway. Image used from The Guardian.

This type of structural segregation is also present in some areas of Atlanta where they will not allow poorly dressed individuals (those who look poor) inside of “richer” buildings. I chose this article because it explicitly shows the concept of architectural exclusion and the article is presented in a very professional non-biased manner. Essentially, this article does not add any opinion, but reports the findings.