This bench is meant to commemorate Indigenous reconciliation. Critics call it hostile architecture

A bench aimed at promoting truth and reconciliation in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., has receivedmixed feelings from residents.While the town sees it as a thoughtful piece of architecture, two women say it's an ironic and inaccessible gesture.

The bench is installed in Kinsmen Park tocommemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. In an interview with CBC News on Wednesday, Mayor George Andrews said the bench is a place people can sit and reflect in the park. It's been positively received by some residents, he said.

But Jade Rachwal, the Labrador Friendship Centre's youth programsmanager, says the bench is a textbook example of hostile architecture due to the placement of an armrest near the middle of the bench.

"If you were to Google hostile architecture, you would see a picture of a bench that looks like this," Rachwal said Monday.

Hostile architecture is an urban design concept that incorporates design elements that purposefully guide behaviour. For something like a park bench, the placement of handrails could be used to prevent people from lying on the bench to rest.

The Town ofHappy Valley-Goose Bay removed severalpublic benches around the community, including at trail entrances, in 2023 to combat what it called "loitering and illegal activity."Members of the community opposed the decision, saying it takes away benches from people who use them regularly while walking.

Avery Brown, a social worker and board secretary at the Labrador Friendship Centre, found the new bench ironic given that several benches had been recently removed from public spaces.

"To remove that accessibility from not only folks impacted by homelessness, but also people who may have mobility concerns and need a rest in the middle of their walk, it just seemed a little ironic to me," Brown said. "You know, defending this bench through accessibility when the rest of the community was made less accessible."

Both Brown and Rachwalsaid they'd like to learn more about how the placement of the bench and the armrest were considered by town officials, and aboutany discussions officials had aboutother reconciliation efforts.

"It just leaves me wanting more," Brown said. "The bench feels really small in comparison to what it is meant to commemorate."

Andrews told CBC News Wednesday the bench wasn't designed to be hostile. The bench was placed in the park to serve as a place to sit and reflect, he said, adding there were no concerns about people lying on the bench overnight, as the park closes at 9 p.m.

"A couple of years ago we were in a different situation where public safety was viewed in terms of certain locations," he said of the town's decision to remove benches in 2023.

"The only reason it was done is because the activity that was happening around those benches, in our mind as council, was viewed as, you know, being a public safety issue. This has nothing to do with that particular issue."

Andrews also called the bench's armrests a "last minute kind of thing" when questions arose about how the bench could be more useful.

The town does have plans to upgrade its trail system in the future, but Andrews said adding back benches and planning that design hasn't happened yet due to other infrastructure priorities.

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