Crime prevention aspects of public space renewal in Budapest

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda Benkő ◽  
Tibor Germán

Purpose Security is one of the most important challenges for contemporary integrated urban developments. In Hungary, every strategic document highlights this goal, seeking social and smart city solutions to the problem. Yet, what about crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)? The purpose of the paper is to introduce a Central-European perspective into the international discussion of the topic. Design/methodology/approach Focusing on European Union-funded renewal of public space in the historic city centre of Budapest, the research investigates how urban security can be facilitated through urban planning and design. The analysis of two projects based on design documents and interviews with actors highlights the importance of CPTED, although it is not recognised officially either in the development or in the management phase. Findings March 15th Square is an attractive contemporary public space in the tourist-historic city centre. The project was centrally planned, executed with typical EU indicators, but without any special requirements for security. The process resulted in a safescape. By contrast, the main principal for the renewal of Teleki László Square, the first Hungarian example of community-based planning, was to instil a feeling of security. The public square became a fenced defensible space. Practical implications The analysis method can be used for other projects evaluating changes in urban security due to public space renewal: history, requirements for security, design solutions for space division, materials and urban furniture, as well as use of space and management after the regeneration. Originality/value The paper uncovers Hungarian cases where environmental crime prevention criteria are not explicitly but implicitly present in contemporary urban planning and design. In relation to urban security, it highlights the gap that exists among disciplines, indicative of a lack of dialogue among policymakers, researchers, designers and management.

Author(s):  
Marek Kozlowski ◽  
Yusnani Mohd Yusof

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the responses from the urban planning and design professions in Brisbane to the impacts of climate change and the implications of the 2011 flood. In the past decade, the ramifications of climate change have already left a scar on some of the urban regions round the world. The Australian continent has been regarded as one of the most affected regions in terms of climate change implications. The 2011 Queensland floods of historic proportion, which came after a decade of extreme drought, raised many questions about the future development of cities. For the past decades, Queensland’s economy was largely based on property-led development. The flood plain land situated along Brisbane River has been developed and overburdened with building infrastructure contributing to the magnification of the flood events. Design/methodology/approach – The research methodology is based on identification of the problem and the major objective. To address the objective, this study concentrated mainly on the use of qualitative research methods. The major qualitative research methods include literature review, qualitative analysis and observations. Brisbane, the capital of the Australian state of Queensland, has been selected as the case study area. Findings – The paper revealed strong regional and city-wide planning directives addressing climate change which has not yet been fully been translated at the local-neighbourhood level. Originality/value – This paper provides a deep insight analysis and evaluation of the design and planning measures currently used to combat the impacts of climate change.


Cities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 103032
Author(s):  
Eva Duivenvoorden ◽  
Thomas Hartmann ◽  
Marlies Brinkhuijsen ◽  
Ton Hesselmans

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  

Informed by the deliberate work of advocates to address the positioning of community voices as subaltern, the last three decades have seen a growing push for alternative approaches to urban planning. In order to foster the culturally competent use and development of public space in the United States, urban planning education must include a focus on the centrality and persistence of racist ideologies and the current fueling of anti-immigrant sentiments that challenge the idea of who “belongs” in communities. Even planners informed by critical theories of participatory practice face challenges working within systems based on positivist and Western-dominant epistemologies. In this article, the authors present three examples of how typically invisibilized voices in communities can be centered in urban planning and design processes, with the goal of informing and expanding preparatory curricula in more culturally sustaining ways. Specifically, the authors employ the concept of counternarratives from critical race theory to present perspectives that challenge dominant practices and understandings. The counterstories presented here document ways that activists of color have involved community members in documenting their experiences in public spaces and used these insights to promote change. The authors apply an asset-oriented perspective that aims to incorporate overlooked sources of knowledge and expertise in communities in order to imagine new possibilities and futures in shared urban spaces by changing planning processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Guimarães

Purpose The excess of tourism in some destinations has led to the discussion of overtourism. One of the sectors that most interacts with tourism is retail, a key element in the experience lived by tourists. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how retail evolves in a context of an overtourism city, how it relates with touristification and what are the elements that best characterise such evolution and relation. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on a case study, using the main historic city centre of Lisbon for that purpose. Fieldwork was developed by the author to collect information about the commercial fabric and its main characteristics. Findings The findings show a clear adaptation of the commercial fabric of the analysed area to the tourism industry. Furthermore, the author unfolded that the change of retail is towards a consumption environment based on leisure, involving the adaptation of the public space into terraces, and on the thematisation of stores, using elements seen as “authentically” Portuguese, which bestows on theses spaces a sort of certification of quality and authenticity. Originality/value The mere reference to the homogenisation of the retail fabric is too simple to explain the richness and variety of elements imbedded in the process of retail change in a context of excessive tourism and touristification. In this paper, the author produced novel knowledge by analysing the elements that embody the evolution of retail in such a context.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Matijosaitiene

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to combine both Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and space syntax for the more detailed and overall analysis of built environment in terms of crime. The author is aiming to verify the designed research methodology by its application in cities that are similar in terms of size and population, and are very different in culture and location: New Haven (USA) and Kaunas (Lithuania). Design/methodology/approach – Based on CPTED strategies the factors of urban environment are analyzed, such as topological depth from private space to a public space, density of entrances and windows, street’s constitutedness, inter-visibility, land use, blind walls, segment’s accessibility, greenery, lighting, objects of small architecture, graffiti. Space syntax method is applied for the analysis of the following topological properties of urban spaces: integration, choice, depth, connectivity. Findings – The combination of both methods revels that choice and depth of urban spaces are related to robberies, and connectivity and depth are related to thefts from motor vehicles in New Haven. Integration and depth are related to thefts from motor vehicles in Kaunas. According to the correlation analysis results, in Kaunas more robberies happen in common use areas, and more thefts from cars happen in the spaces with blind walls and dense abandoned greenery. In New Haven more thefts from motor vehicles happen in spaces with blind walls. In both cities with the increase of the topological depth the thefts from motor vehicles increase too. Originality/value – Based on the research results recommendations on urban planning and design are developed. The implementation of the recommendations might make New Haven and Kaunas safer.


Buildings ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Wootton-Beard ◽  
Yangang Xing ◽  
Raghavalu Durai Prabhakaran ◽  
Paul Robson ◽  
Maurice Bosch ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 167 ◽  
pp. 184-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Lin ◽  
Min Liu ◽  
Feixiong Luo ◽  
Kai Wang ◽  
Qiuzhuo Zhang ◽  
...  

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