The hostile architecture of the Olympics is a preview of what is to come

On covered with graffiti sidewalk in Paris, a strange sight appeared days before the opening ceremony of the Olympics in July: About 40 giant Lego-like cement blocks in neat rows under the Pont de Stains, a bridge in the northern suburb of Aubervilliers that connects two Olympic sites, the Stade de France and the Parc des Nations.

The site was a homeless camp where about 100 people, many of them migrants, lived in tents. Then on July 17, police arrived and instructed everyone to leave as part of a clean-up operation in which authorities put homeless people, members of the Roma community, migrants and prostitutes on buses to other cities, such as Bordeaux or Toulouse.

After authorities cleared the area, activists say, immovable concrete blocks were installed in place of the tents, ending any notion that the former residents might one day be able to return.

Activists say these bricks are an example of hostile architecture, a term used to describe some of the most visible changes cities and companies are making to deter homeless people loitering or sleeping on their properties. “It’s not new, but it was reinforced in a very specific way during the Olympics,” said Antoine de Klerk, part of Le Revers de la Médaille, an activist group raising awareness of how marginalized people are treated during the Olympics .

“We are not advocating camps, squats and slums,” adds de Klerk. “But to eradicate them, you have to find alternative long-term solutions.”

Despite other examples of hostile architecture in Paris, including picnic tables installed where people sleep, the most controversial are the giant Lego-style blocks. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Jules Boykoff, a professor and former professional soccer player who studies the impact of the Olympics on marginalized communities. “Usually hostile architecture is more subtle,” he says, “like a curved bus bench that makes it less comfortable for someone to sleep.”