The safety dilemma : creating safety in public space

This graduate thesis is engaged with perceived safety and "safe making" design in public places. Despite the fact that we have never been as safe, questions of safety get more attention than ever in today’s society. Public demands for safer and more secure environments and low levels of experienced feelings of safety indicate problems in society that can shrink people's usage of public places as well as their quality of life. Through methodical exaggeration of danger and legislation of laws, the state creates a situation that in different respect work to overprotect the citizens, who are not unlikely to experience feelings of being unsafe at the same time that the actual safety is to big. An expansion of protection against fear can unlike what was first intended decrease the experience of safety. Instead of working in a direction that makes the public fear grow the state must learn its citizens to correctly deal with everyday risks. According to psychiatrist David Eberhard, citizens in what he refers to as "the safe narcomanic society" are lacking the ability to make correct risk analysis. An overall perspective of questions concerned with safety, contemporary knowledge from literature studies and interviews with experts are presented. This provides support for the analysis that follow, tips and advices on how a safer outdoor environment can be created. Additionally I describe my vision of common people's perceived safety on the basis of results from surveys of public opinion on safety, media and interviews with common people. There is still much to learn before we will find the ultimate structure that provide an efficient local safety design which accomplish a higher level of experienced safety. A structure that create a safe milieu without negative side effects, as a more closed society with increased suspiciousness towards other people. It is hard to define safety and to create a general application for how projects of "safe making" shall be undertaken as the feeling of safety is individual for every person and every place. The dream of a safe society can only be approached if we let the features that creates safety run through the founding that form our society without any limitations. Finally, my conclusion is that attractivness is of decisive importance for the perceived safety at a place. This give landscape architects together with the other professions engaged in the design and maintainance of our physical environment a prominent role in the development of safe public places