SPACE, NOT SPIKES: Curtain Road from Leah Borromeo on Vimeo.

Anti anti-homeless spikes are turning travesties of urban design into welcoming spacesA group of artist activists have taken to the streets of London with a mattresses and bookshelves in an effort to turn ledges and parts of the street with barbaric anti-homeless spikes into hospitable sleeping spaces.“Space, Not Spikes came from the anger of public/private space inequity,” say the group on their Tumblr. “Nothing says "keep out” to a person more than rows of sharpened buttplugs laid out to stop people from enjoying or using public space.” The group’s first urban makeover went down on Curtain Road in Shoreditch outside the now defunct Plastic People, an area chosen because of its history as the centre of a growing artistic community. The group used a blue mattress to neutralize the spikes so people could sit or lie down while a bookshelf was stocked with various tomes on subjects such as the housing crisis, inequality, gentrification, place-hacking, and poverty.“We’re looking at poor doors and architecture designed to keep the 'right’ people in and the 'wrong’ people out,” say the group. “Regardless of whether you own, rent or even have a home, the streets are ours.“​ In this instance, physical action was taken to highlight the group’s grievances but an online presence still existed. In our Can Clicktivism Ever Replace Activism? observation we looked at how activists were using social media as a driving force for their campaigns. Still hungry for more? Sign up for our weekly supplement featuring the latest news, profiles, features and innovation