“there is no such thing as a ‘neutral’ design.”
Before a structure is even built, a detailed blueprint is introduced including: area, size, and ultimate design of the structure. This is then voted on and then the construction process begins once it is approved. There is no "neutral design" because the design itself is approved by many before it is actually built.
However, there is a trend among some legal scholars toward using architecture as a metaphor, demonstrating a fledgling appreciation of its power to structure people’s lives.
Now that I actually think about it I can see how architecture has the power to shape the lives of those around us. For example, the opening of a new middle school near the one I attended caused thousands of students to have to attend the new one. This was due to the redistricting of my school area which these students no longer pertained to. Due to this change of school these students were separated from children they had known their entire lives and forced to socialize with new people in this new school.
The idea that architecture regulates is found at the core of much urban planning and geography scholarship, though that body of literature does not always describe architecture as “regulation.”
I feel that most people do not think of architecture as being regulatory. Even this body of literature does not define architecture as regulation even though it "founded" the idea of architectural regulation.
Yet the bench may have been created this way to prevent people—often homeless people—from lying down and taking naps
I have seen these types of benches in Central Park and mostly the subways in New York. The subway seats used to have dividers to prevent anyone from laying comfortably across them. In some cities concrete spiked are placed under bridges to prevent the homeless from sleeping there.
We often experience our physical environment without giving its features much thought.
I agree with this statement because I never really focused on why a certain piece of architecture was built a certain way or placed in a certain area. Now that I know and realize what architectural exclusion is, it has become easier to identify pieces of architecture that present themselves as exclusionary in our physical environment.