People who want to withdraw money from ABN AMRO on the Grote Markt no longer need to feel unsafe and it will probably result in considerably less mess. With the permission of the municipality of Groningen, the bank has placed ‘hostile architecture’ on the facade of its own building.
“I think it’s really weird. Why is this actually the case?”, says Sami (24), on Wednesday afternoon. He is with four comrades in the heart of the City. The Meikermis is being built. One of the five young men barely fits his buttocks on the edge of the ‘window sill’ of the bank building, a popular hangout especially for young people and older youths. But large metal strips prevent all five of Sami and his buddies from sitting with their butts on the marble and their legs forward. “I think it’s just K. Couldn’t that have been different?”
One of his comrades, the one who had just found a seat, looks doubtful. ,,We always sat on those big stairs here on the square (Grote Markt, ed.)”, he says, his legs dangling and a can of energy drink next to him on the stone hangout. “But that staircase is not coming back either. We’re not quite used to it yet.”
Sleeping place for the homeless, stopping place for visitors
There was some commotion in the city council after the installation of metal strips – called ‘hostile architecture’ – on the wide window sill in front of the ABN AMRO building. Homeless people who could not get a place in a dormitory stayed here at night. During the day, the elevation was used as a stopping place for visitors to the Grote Markt.
“That so-called window sill had been a source of nuisance for years,” says Hans Sjouke Koopal, spokesman for ABN AMRO. ,,Yes, everyone just sits there with a milkshake or something else to eat or drink. It produced a lot of waste. And we also received more and more reports of people who felt unsafe or uncomfortable when they wanted to use their ATM around the corner. Reason enough to discuss this with the municipality.”
PvdA council member Rozemarijn Gierkink regrets that homeless people no longer have the opportunity to spend the night in front of the bank. GroenLinks thinks the metal strips are undesirable and ugly. Both coalition parties demanded clarification from alderman Mirjam Wijnja, because it was not clear that the municipality had granted permission for this.
“Do you have to drink cappuccino on someone else’s windowsill?”
Wijnja says that the bank has engaged an architect and that the municipality has looked into it with the heritage and aesthetics departments. “The metal strips on the building are glued and not screwed. This means that no damage has been done to a potential monument.”
VVD council member Ietje Jacobs thinks the request from PvdA and GroenLinks to remove the comics goes much too far. “Do you really think that you should be able to drink cappuccino in someone else’s window sill?” The alderman sees no possibility to remove the strips. “It has been tested and then it would be strange if we suddenly found something different about this.”