Secure urban environments by design:analysis of Konak square design through"crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) princioples

Abstract

Better design can play a crucial role for reducing crime and creating secureurban environments. In this regard, planners and designers have begun to acknowledge the importance of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED).However, unlike foreign countries, crime prevention through planning and design context has not been considered and integrated with the planning and design studies in Turkey.This study is aimed to fill this vital gap. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to examine the relationships between crime (as well as fear of crime) and the spatial built environment. To do that, as one of the recently redesigned public space of zmir, Konak Square Design has been analysed through CPTED principles. In that case,a comparison of recent design of Konak Square and CPTED principles are carried out.Then, if design features of the square complies with CPTED principles or not, found out. Finally, additional recommendations are made that have not been covered by existing CPTED principles to improve security considerations of public places.For this purpose, interviews have been conducted with the zmir Police Department and also the official crime records of the area have been obtained from them. Besides using cross-correlation technique, systematic observations and questionnaires have been used as research methods of this study.Consequently, this particular study did find support for the causal relationships between the occurrence of crime or feelings of insecurity and characteristics of the spatial built environments. Therefore, the study has emphasized that, planning and design issues should be considered carefully in order to create safer and livable public spaces.