For too long, efforts to design secure urban spaces have prioritized utilitarian barriers and unsightly fortifications over aesthetically pleasing solutions. The result is a proliferation of bollards, jersey barriers, and hulking blocks of concrete meant to shield pedestrians from vehicle attacks. While effective at preventing vehicular access, these harsh security measures detract from the beauty and ambience of public plazas, parks, and streetscapes. However, an emerging design philosophy offers a better way forward that marries security with attractive urban design. Called “crime prevention through environmental design” (CPTED), this approach uses the placement of elements in the built environment as security devices, guided by core principles like natural surveillance, territoriality, access control, and hardening targets. Applying CPTED to protect against vehicle-borne threats, urban designers can incorporate aesthetic architectural and landscape elements that serve a dual purpose – preventing hostile vehicle entry while enhancing the space’s visual appeal.
Integrated Security Elements
Some attractive security elements that can be integrated into urban spaces include:
Reinforced planters and trees:
Large, reinforced concrete or metal planters with trees, hedges or other greenery can block vehicle access to pedestrian zones. Not only do they provide protective hardening, but planters soften hardscapes and introduce beautiful natural elements. Varying the arrangement of planters can also create a meandering path that slows vehicular approaches.
Architectural berms and seating:
Sculpted reinforced concrete seating and raised berms can restrict vehicle access while providing casual seating and adding topographical interest to flat plazas. Berms can be planted with vegetation as well. Water features and sculptures: Artfully designed fountains, pools, and sculptural barriers placed at vehicular access points create physical barriers in an aesthetically pleasing way that improves the space’s ambience.
Decorative bollards and fences:
While typical bollards and fencing are quite utilitarian, there are more decorative options that can enhance aesthetics like bollards with architectural embellishments or metalwork fencing with thoughtful design.
The key is for designers to intentionally integrate multi-functional security elements seamlessly into each project through elegant landscape architecture, hardscape elements, and urban design – hiding protective measures in plain sight in a way that enhances the public’s enjoyment of the space.
Coordinating During Design
To execute this holistic CPTED approach, close coordination is required during a project’s design phase between the design team (architects, landscape architects, urban designers, etc.), security consultants, law enforcement, and other stakeholders. Together they can conduct a risk assessment, determine potential threat vectors, and develop aesthetically cohesive solutions that blend beauty and security.
With this approach, our public spaces can achieve robust security without sacrificing beauty and placemaking. Cities can become safer and more resilient to vehicle attacks and other threats, while still aspiring to the highest standards of civic design that uplift the human experience. As urban populations continue growing and the risk of vehicle attacks persists, implementing principles of crime prevention through environmental design provides a smarter way to balance security and aesthetics in the public realm. The result is civic spaces that are not only safer but more enjoyable for the public they are meant to serve.