| Summary: | Designing safer places is of interest to architects whose primary motivation is to create
the best environment within the parameters of the design problem. Traditionally, since
the time of Oscar Newman's theory of defensible space, architects have attempted to
create safer places based on broad principles of surveillance and territoriality in the
absence of detailed information on crime and nuisance activity. In the past quarter
century, a large body of scientific research has been developed in the field of
environmental criminology which illuminates the detailed circumstances as well as the
background reasons of why crime happens. It is this thesis that this information is
valuable to the practice of architecture and can be directly applicable. However, given
that there is so little knowledge of crime out there, this information must developed into
factual, well developed illustrations that allow the architect to develop a total framework
of understanding. Once the framework is established and the architect incorporates the
knowledge, it will take its place with the other numerous design parameters that compose
the complex problem of architectural design. Architectural design, more that other types
of design, is made up of both scientific knowledge and artistic knowledge. Incorporating
this scientific research into the field of architecture must balance both endeavours.
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