Designing an Urban Space for Safety during Off-Peak Hours
Image: Borya | Flickr
We all have similar urban spaces that we don’t like to hang around. Train stations, bus stations and just outside retail stores after hours. I’m sure when you have to pass through these places, you like to move quickly. And why is this? This is probably because it isn’t so safe.
So, what does this have to do with architectural design?
THE AFTER-HOURS BUILDING “PULSE”
The next time you are involved in a design for these types of places, you really should consider what goes on there after hours. You should design for what you would like to encourage during those off peak times. Your lighting, acoustics, material selection, window placements and site design all play a part.
As you design, don’t forget that your building occupant’s needs may be different at night compared to the day. Often, built environments need a pulse after hours and you, as the architect, play a role in making sure that whatever that “pulse” is yields an architecture that is pleasant and safe.
AN EXAMPLE: CLASSICAL MUSIC WARDS OFF CRIME
In many subway stations and bus stations there are often loiterers that disrupt the public, bring down the social climate of a place, vandalize the built structures or even engage in crime. In one project, decision-makers came up with a win-win solution that drove away delinquent behavior and improved passenger comfort and mood. This is what they did…
- Through a sound system authorities played classical music for all to hear.
It seems that Mozart does not go hand-in-hand with delinquent behavior and unwanted loitering activities. Additionally, hearing this type of music often helps passengers feel safe and even serves to put them in a good mood.
TAPPING INTO THE BRAIN
In the article entitled Businesses Using Music to Deter Crime and Loitering, neurologists explain why certain types of music can have these effects. You see, for those that like classical music, dopamine is released in the brain and that creates a happier and more pleasurable mood – as if your body is being rewarded. On the other hand, for those that don’t like classical music, dopamine is inhibited and that dampens a person’s mood – causing them to get away from the music.
7 KEY QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU DESIGN CONSCIOUSLY
As you design, try asking yourself the following 7 questions. It is important to think of each question in terms of “off-peak hours”. The key is to think of answers that will help you design consciously for your building’s off-peak times.
- What design ideas might give my building an appropriate “pulse” during off-peak times?
- What occupant behaviors should my design foster to promote safety?
- How can my building help the community, even while it is not in use?
- Within my design, what human senses can I tap into during off-peak hours?
- What community problems and social needs can my design help with?
- Do I need to deter people or bring them closer during off-peak times?
- What human activities, both intended and unintended, will my design invite?
For instance, buildings that completely shut down during the night often have to enforce security. Similarly, buildings that are completely open during the night often attract some unwanted people that engage in unwanted behaviors.
As an architect, you should find the right balance so your design is pleasant, safe and positively adds to its surrounding environment.
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK
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In an hospital’s ER, staff and patients are often threatened by psychotic people or substance abusers. The layouts and ambience of the ER can contribute to making it safer. Providing appropriate barriers, good observation of the entire public waiting area by staff and controlling the ambience through appropriate colors and lighting as opposed to the tubelights and white tiled walls we see in urban ER’s can go a long way in making this space safer. In addition to this, appropriate music, as you point out, could play it’s own role. This thought is off the track of “off-peak hours”, but I thought I could mention it.
Hussain,
You make some very good points. Not only would your suggestions make the hospital ER environment safer, but they would also make the ER more comfortable and humane — reducing stress, anxiety and even pain for patients.
Thanks for your great comment!
I’m thinking that there is little difference between commercial oriented motivational research that “sends eyeballs to cash registers” and environmental design in architecture. Nor is there an essential difference between NASCAR drivers and Architects in that “the car goes where the eye goes”.
Both advertising agencies and drivers rely on subliminal perception, cognitive psychology, and a retina-neuron-kinesthetic linkage from a visual field read that overrides conscious left-brain reading. On the road, design is missile guidance.
Collision sites usually present to the retina, misleading cues and focal points, camouflage and optical illusions. These would be easily recognized and corrected by Architects. Further research in design via neurological and motivational factors promises to confront other distractions, arrogance and carelessness attributed by engineers as “the nut that holds the steering wheel”.
The death toll on the nation’s roadways now stands at 10 times the lives lost in the attacks on 9/11/01, each year. The death toll of pedestrians each year is double the 9/11/01 losses. Add 2,575,000 injured, to total 696 9/11s. According to NTSA, each death or injury costs the public in economic losses, an average of $1 million. There is a target of $44,400,000,000 to add back into the economy.
I have cut collisions in half by design in situ. Is there any other Architect out there who sees this syndrome as part of Architects’ calling to safeguard the health, safety and well being of the public? Or found a granting agency?