DESIGNING OUT CRIME
“How architects go on to deliver these special neighbourhoods of mutual care and consideration is of course a matter for exploration, but we would put in a plea for proper and well documented analysis at the planning application stage. “It is a fact that there are
hundreds of inputs and contributions to a housing design. The architect must homologate all of these in the cooking pot of design innovation and fuse them into something magical. Our aim in designing the Secured by Design Toolkit was to contribute confidently to an architecture that contributes to good behaviour and social wellbeing. Arguably the security that can be bought with guard dogs and big gates is not practical or desirable in a democratic society. The idea is not to spend more money, but to spend the same money wisely in achieving an architecture that cradles the individuals and takes this role seriously. Gated communities simply move the problem elsewhere. The Toolkit aims to bring security to a wider audience. “Architects are currently
faced with a serious push to adopt Building Information Modelling (BIM) which is a coordinated industry-wide initiative to improve methods of working for building designers through integrated building information. It is a universal CAD model that can be interrogated intelligently to improve building efficiency in construction and operation. The Secured by Design Toolkit also sets out to improve working methods and to inform the urban model. “How can we put a value on
safer communities? The reduction in insurance and policing costs is clear but the improved sense of wellbeing in our communities is surely a more lauded target for us all. As we have said the Toolkit is a starting point but like any good initiative it must develop; how is this to be achieved? “Firstly, we need more
dialogue between promoters of the various design agendas,” Lampard says. “The Toolkit touches upon urban design and sustainable community principles and, where there is tension, this could be resolved with an integrated package of
solutions forming a launch pad for imaginative design. One aspect that comes to mind is the permeability of neighbourhoods that affords good pedestrian and transport links, but that also permits better access for wrongdoers. A strategic guidance group, of which Secured by Design was a key player, would assist greatly to bring the Toolkit to maturity and it is our hope to further the debate through such mechanisms. In addition the Toolkit currently deals only with housing design, but there are plans to look at other building and development types in the
16 | Architects Choice |
ArchitectNews.co.uk
near future. “Secondly, we need
inspiration to be valued. Christopher Alexander's seminal book: ‘The TimelessWay of Building' lauded the terraced house with a bay window that surveyed the street up and down. It is a simple solution that derives from real insight and vision.When we draw from history but apply it to a modern context we usually have a formula for success. The intuition of the designer is a fundamental building block that the Toolkit is seeking to support and it is a tool that will be adapted as time goes by.
“Thirdly, our care for one
another is our greatest security and it is this care that we hope is espoused in the Secured by Design Toolkit. If architects buy into the very real influence they have over all our behaviours through good design then the Toolkit will have made a valuable contribution. We support the values which underpinning designing out crime which bring security to our urban environments. As H L Mencken observed: “Most people want security in this world, not liberty.” Perhaps security is liberty.
provided by passer’s by in well designed areas is a farmore effective deterrent to anti- social behaviour and is also
The natural surveillance
muchmore desirable than big brother style surveillance.
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