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The lawn as hostile architecture:

I am thinking today about grass, and specifically the irrigation necessary to maintain this distinctly unnecessary feature, as a form of hostile architecture: not just a symbolic gesture of dominion, but also a technique of exclusion.

The use of sprinklers to discourage homeless encampments on private and public property is widespread—including in cities with tight restrictions on residential irrigation, and including excess irrigation to the point of actual damage to the landscape and the plants that purportedly require it. The priority is exclusion, and the grass is its alibi.