In Parts I and II of Sarah Schindler’s article, “Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation Through Physical Design of the Built Environment”, she addresses two main focal points. In Part I, she acknowledges the literature and history that “discusses infrastructure placement and design as physical and symbolic contributors to economic and social inequality, exclusion, and isolation (Schindler.)”  In Part II, she acknowledges the actions and occurrences of architectural exclusion happening in today’s society.

Part I addresses that legal scholars have always discussed “regulation” and how it limits and constrains human behavior, though Schindler states that the environment does not play a part in the legal definition of regulation. She also mentions that though it isn’t addressed that the built environment does form as regulation of some kind, she states it’s an “important form of extra-legal regulation.”

Though her argument is presented as architecture being utilized as means of exclusion and regulation, Schindler also mentions that practicing planners often don’t consider architecture as regulation. Rather, they focus on the needs of urban infrastructure. By this, Schindler is iterating her counter-argument and illustrating both sides of the issue to ensure to the reader that the article is scholarly and credible and full of factual evidence.

Schindler then explains how legal authors have acknowledged the ideas of physical architecture being used as a human constraint, but often don’t look into them. She credits legal authors such as Lawrence Lessig and Susan Sturm for their input on the role of architectural exclusion. She accredits their abilities to make metaphors and analogies about the topic, but their main focus on the issue isn’t present. She mentions, “These scholars use architectural concepts in an implicit acknowledgement that the actual physical architecture of asphalt and steel binds our actions… Traditional architecture is not just a useful metaphor for exposing hidden regulatory systems. It is regulation (Schindler, Part I.)”

She goes on to describe another category of legal scholars that don’t address architecture, the built environment, space and place as a regulation, but rather in the context of class and race. She mentions Lior Jacob Strahilevitz examining ‘exclusionary amenities,’ “which are features of residential developments that are generally expensive and that only appeal to certain demographic groups (Schindler, Part I.)”

At the end of Part I, she mentions a very key piece of information, which is that architectural exclusion and regulation is just as powerful as law, yet isn’t addressed nearly as much as it should be in courts of law or in front of legislators or potential plaintiffs.

Part II of the Article explains the actual practice and occurrences of architectural exclusion in society. She talks about physical barriers being used to exclude, and having done her research uses Robert Moses’s Long Island Bridges as an example. Moses specifically lowered them to a level in which buses could not pass under them, to keep certain individuals out. She even did research enough to discover that Moses’s biographer suggested that his favor towards the upper- and middle-white class who owned cars was due to his “social-class bias and racial prejudice.”

She goes on in an organized manner explaining the different methods of transportation and physical barriers that have tendencies to exclude. She describes that transportation systems such as buses and transit have been accustomed to excluding certain individuals from certain areas. Bridges, one-way streets, and sidewalks are all strategically placed in certain areas to keep flow of traffic out of particular regions.

All in all, Schindler’s article is extremely eye-opening and truthful. The factual evidence is represented in every area of the article, and one can’t deny that architectural exclusion is something we are experiencing even today.

 

Source: Schindler, Sarah. “Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation Through Physical Design of the Built Environment.” Yale Law Journal –. N.p., Apr. 2015. Web. 16 Sept. 2016.

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