Caulfield to Dandenong delivers safer outcomes for the community through design
29 August 2019
The ‘broken windows’ concept is a reference to
the sky-high crime rates of New York City in the 70s and 80s.
Fast forward one decade and violent crimes declined by more than 56 per
cent while property crimes tumbled by about 65 per cent. This success is
usually attributed to the city’s application of the broken windows
concept which eliminated visible signs of societal decay—graffiti,
public lewdness, and broken windows on abandoned
buildings— to create an atmosphere that discourages criminal
activity.
But broken windows owed much to the development of
Crime Prevention
Through Environmental Design (CPTED) in the sixties.
Urban planners, architects, criminologists and social scientists studied multi-disciplinary approaches to crime prevention including themes initiatives such as natural surveillance, access control, and the sense of ownership that inspire local communities to embrace ‘natural guardianship’.
According to Samantha Harrison, Design Coordinator on
Caulfield to
Dandenong (CTD) for
WSP, “The CPTED principles require the design to
define space and encourage people to embrace the infrastructure as their
own, in turn deterring vandalism.
“CPTED is now a widely-respected agenda for enhancing the built
environment to create safer neighbourhoods. Tests show that applying
CPTED measures overwhelmingly reduces criminal activity.”
Appropriate environmental design can also increase the perceived
likelihood that intruders will be detected and apprehended – the biggest
single crime deterrent. Wide-ranging recommendations to architects
include planting trees and shrubs, eliminating escape routes, using
lighting correctly, and encouraging pedestrian and bicycle traffic in
streets.
WSP was a part of the team that delivered the CTD section of one of
Victoria’s largest-ever infrastructure projects; the ambitious
Level
Crossing Removal Project (LXRP). Featuring a ‘sky rail’ solution, CTD
allows land under five new
stations to be repurposed to create station
precincts and places of community value – playgrounds, walking and
cycling tracks, dog parks, basketball courts and more.
In her role for CTD, Samantha Harrison ran the CPTED sessions for each
station precinct.
She explains, “We took our designs to Victoria Police, Metro Trains
Melbourne, the local councils, Public Transport Victoria as well as our
urban designers and our landscape architects. And, we viewed them
through the CPTED principles lens — natural access control, natural
surveillance, and people’s natural sense of owning the infrastructure.
“As a result of the workshop
outcomes, new lighting strategies were produced, pod buildings created
instead of linear buildings to generate visual permeability, and small
spaces were removed to make the stations as open as possible.
The project’s Human Factors Specialist, Conor O’Brien (Opposite) also
relishes the phenomenal capabilities that CPTED provides.
“It offers the opportunity to consider diverse expert and user-focused
opinions for a wide range of scenarios,” he says. “CPTED can be a true
pressure test of the asset or service provided as it considers a
spectrum of behaviours that ultimately feed into an enhanced design.”
Specialists in the CTD workshops were concerned that some concourse
buildings and furniture could obstruct natural surveillance and make
users feel less safe and secure. Hence, designers opted to use more
glass within the station concourses to improve view distances. And,
instead of one long building, they designed pods. Pillars were also
given rounded edges to help reduce blind corners. Soft landscaping and
urban design elements removed hard surfaces to discourage graffiti.
Integrating community elements into the precincts, such as the skate
park in the Noble Park Precinct helped to further encourage the
community’s sense of ownership.
“People’s behaviour is influenced by an environment’s design,” adds
Conor.” CPTED strategies are reducing opportunities for crime and
increasing communities’ safety in – and enjoyment of - their new station
precincts.”
--ENDS--
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