SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF public realm design
Whilst working at Farrer Huxley Associates I put together a bid to be on the framework of consultants used by a housing association, the One Housing Group, in London.
One of the questions was our approach to designing public places within residential areas where there is a history of vandalism and anti-social behaviour. In order to explain our approach I produced two diagrams.
The first diagram above outlines what is a common approach to dealing with this problem, that always makes the problem worse, as a design that focuses on protection and surveillance often produces the behaviour you are trying to change.
The second below is more aspirational and and based on the observation that in trusting people and providing somewhere to spend time, relax and socialise then you will encourage the whole community to use the space, which in turn encourages ownership of the space and discourages anti-social behaviour.