Author: CABE
ISBN No:
Review date: 16/12/2025
No of pages: 115
Publisher: CABE
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
It’s Our Space: A guide for community groups working to improve public space is new from CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.
It matches the case for good design being good for security early on: “If they cannot see in and out of a public space people will use it less and crime and anti-social behaviour may creep in.” Parks and campus and other grounds are all too often unwelcoming hot-spots for graffiti, abandoned cars and other crime. They can be turned around, several case studies show, and not necessarily with technology (CCTV) but (cheaper) landscaping, to promote ‘natural surveillance’ (the posh way of saying eyes and ears giving a sense of security among site users). The document nods to the Government’s Respect agenda against anti-social behaviour, but still shows how designing out security has, largely, yet to seep into the thinking of planners, architects and the like.
