HOME OFFICE News
Release (135/2007) issued by The Government News Network on 10
August 2007
Four of the
UK's most respected designers have joined the
Government's new anti-crime Design and Technology Alliance,
Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker announced today.
The independent Alliance of design experts will raise the profile
within industry of how innovative design can tackle crime. They
will work with the Home Office to embed the message that design
can have a real impact on cutting crime by making it harder and
less attractive for criminals - in turn making people and
communities feel safer. It is one part of a renewed focus on
designing out crime in the Government's new Crime Strategy
announced last month by the Home Secretary.
The two founder members, Sebastian Conran, of Conran &
Partners, and Chairman of the Commission for Architecture and the
Built Environment, John Sorrell have been joined by:
* David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council;
* Professor Jeremy Myerson, Professor of Design Studies at the
Royal College of Art;
* Professor Gloria Laycock, Director of the UCL Centre for
Security and Crime Science; and,
* Professor Lorraine Gamman, Director of the Design Against Crime
Research Centre at Central St Martins School of Art and Design.
Home office Minister Vernon Coaker said:
"Innovative design has played an important role in driving
down crime overall by a third over the past decade. Much of the
51 per cent fall in vehicle crime in particular can be attributed
to design improvements such as immobilisers and toughened glass.
"The Design and Technology Alliance will seek to build on
these achievements. They will champion the message that designing
out crime is about sustainable and innovative design of products,
spaces and places to make crime unattractive and make communities
feel safer.
"I want to encourage business to accept as routine their
responsibility to ensure products and services do not create new
crime opportunities. We have already seen successes particularly
through our close working with the mobile phone industry who have
today announced they have met the targets we set for them to block
stolen handsets within 48 hours of theft rendering them useless to criminals.
"Crime has a social impact, so it must be considered in the
same way that impact on the environment or health and safety risks
for customers are considered. We must maximise the influence good
design can have in the fight against crime."
Ian McInnes from the Association of Chief Police Officers Crime
Prevention Initiatives said:
"There are excellent examples to show designing-out crime
works. The police service supports the Alliance to build on these
examples and encourage more designers and manufacturers to address
crime risk at the design stage. Neither crime nor unattractive
add-on security need be a regular consequence of purchasing homes,
consumer technology, or services."
Also today the terms of reference of the Alliance have been
published on the Home Office website. They include:
* Generating positive design approaches and solutions to specific
crime issues and disorder problems;
* Advising on strategies for the wider implementation of these
ideas working with industry, the police, consumer organisations
and other partners;
* Inspiring designers to produce positive design solutions, for
example through commissions, awards and publicity;
* Demonstrating that design against crime is both attractive and
desirable, and will drive sales through increased consumer value;
* Advising on and assisting with the development of
consumer-oriented initiatives and innovations, based on sound
consumer insight;
* Identifying potential threats, solutions and opportunities
presented by new and innovative technologies; and,
* Generally raising the profile of design against crime within
industry and commerce, to place it firmly at the core of Corporate
Social Responsibility agenda.
Cost-benefit analysis has shown that remedial design measures can
deliver savings of up to five times the original investment, along
with crime reductions of up to 70 per cent. The benefit would be
even greater if action were taken at the concept design stage.
There are numerous examples of how design interventions have
helped to reduce crime:
* Aircraft hijackings decreased from 70 to 15 per year in the
1970s after routine passenger and baggage screening was introduced;
* Chip and Pin slashed credit card fraud at UK retailers in 2006
by 46 per cent;
* Houses that meet ACPO Secured By Design (SBD) standards
experience a quarter less crime than non-SBD houses, and residents
fear of crime is lower;
* Burglary has reduced by 37 per cent in Liverpool since 5,000
gated alleys were introduced.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The new Home Office Crime Strategy was launched on 19 July
2007 and can be downloaded from the Home Office website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/crime-strategy-07
2. More experts from the product and manufacturing, built
environment and service design sectors are expected to join the
Alliance before its first meeting in September 2007.
3. Thereafter, the Alliance will meet formally each quarter
whilst providing ad hoc advice to Government as required. A
governance board will be set up comprising organisations across
Government in the business and design sector, consumer
organisations and the police who will be key to the delivery.
4. Independent test results showed this year that the Mobile
Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF) - made up of Government,
industry and the police - made good its pledge to block 80 per
cent of mobile phones, across all networks, within 48 hours of
them being reported stolen, making them less attractive to
criminals. Figures published in the MICAF annual report today show
that over 5 million lost and stolen mobile phones have been
blacklisted by the mobile networks. A summary of the report can be
found at http://www.micaf.co.uk.
5. The latest Home Office 'R U GETTIN THE MSG' mobile
phone blocking campaign is running in weekly youth magazines, on
phone boxes, on shopping centre bins in robbery hotspots and
online across the country. It is supported by MICAF and the
National Mobile Phone Crime Unit and aims to use the fact that
stolen mobiles can now be blocked within 48 hours to tackle the
domestic youth market for phones. For copies of the creative
please contact the Home Office press office.
6. The Association of Chief Police Officers 'secured by
design' standards for security and the built environment can
be viewed at http://www.securedbydesign.com.
The website includes numerous examples of effective design
solutions to combat crime.
7. Further examples of how crime has successfully been cut
through design can be downloaded from the Design Council website
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/Design-Council/3/Publications/?PageNum=3
Case studies
HULME PARK, MANCHESTER
In the late 1980s Hulme was notorious for crime and poorly
designed housing, but since then this former run-down area close
to Manchester city centre has been transformed through
regeneration. As part of this, Landscape Projects, a small team of
landscape architects based in Manchester, was asked to develop an
entirely new park.
The result is Hulme Park, which ably demonstrates the value of
design in creating a safe, green and communal environment within
an area previously notorious for high levels of crime, especially
robbery and burglary.
Says Neil Swanson of Landscape Projects: "The brief for the
new park was a visionary project that was very specific and well
thought out. The idea was to use passive surveillance to prevent
the occurrence and fear of mugging rather than control entry to
the public space. This would mean using psychological rather than
physical boundaries as well as paying special attention to the way
in which spaces were overlooked."
The designers' aim was to develop a park that would be safe
for all users, from elderly people walking dogs to young children.
An open-plan style was developed with pathways and roads
connecting the park to other parts of the city. A mix of bollards,
small trenches and grills prevent the park's misuse by car
drivers, motorcyclists or dogs. In addition to youth areas and
sports facilities, children are catered for within a challenging
play area located next to a school where they can easily be seen.
The park itself is surrounded by newly-developed houses and
low-rise flats and has significantly contributed to their value -
apartments facing the park cost £20,000 more than those facing away.
Hulme Park has been relatively free from crime and has been
described by a local police officer as 'a triumph of design'.
Contact: Neil Swanson, Landscape Projects, tel 0161 839 8336.
NORTHMOOR SOCIAL HOUSING
The Northmoor area of Longsight in inner-city Manchester was once
a nightmare for residents, with a declining population, high
levels of unemployment and poverty and increasing crime rates and
fear of crime. Complaints to police were mostly about burglary and
prostitution. Houses bought for £30,000 were worth no more than
£7,000. Passing traffic and parking problems added to the dangers.
Despite this there was a strong, vibrant and diverse local
community willing to work with the local authority and developers
and designers to improve their situation. With grants from the
government and other sources, Ian Finlay Architects of Manchester
were appointed to transform the area by design, and in particular
to create a Home Zone in Northmoor - a concept that puts
pedestrians before cars and encourages social interaction to
reduce crime and the fear of crime.
The architects built in boundaries and gateways at major access
points to reinforce the sense of identity, using physical and
psychological approaches such as lighting, signage, building
facades, paving and planting to control access. Security was
improved by closing alleyways, restricting pedestrian movement and
improving lighting in streets and a railway underpass. And there
are ongoing initiatives to promote community safety, improve home
maintenance and develop community art.
The quality of housing was improved by knocking down internal
walls to turn two properties into one, by building some new homes,
and by buying up and demolishing some houses to create open
spaces. Traffic calming measures and attention to layout
discourage joyriders from using the area and parking is restricted
to reclaim the streets for people.
In Northmoor today, thanks to innovative urban design, complaints
are more likely to be about the lack of car parking spaces. And
houses are changing hands for up to £100,000 each.
Contact: Ian Finlay, Ian Finlay Architects, tel 0161 272 8475.
Nile Street, London N1
OVERVIEW
Nile Street is an innovative high density development in London
Borough of Hackney, designed by architects Munckenbeck and
Marshall for the Peabody Trust. It is a showcase for social
housing in inner-city London, providing 175 homes, a communal
courtyard and roof gardens and a youth centre. 128 of the homes
are affordable, designed for key workers and those on low or
intermediate incomes.
The development is situated on Nile Street, N1, a few minutes
walk from Old Street underground and a stone's throw from
trendy Hoxton Square. The site was previously an NCP car park and
was purchased by The Peabody Trust from Hackney Council in March
2003. The location is perfect for key workers, being close to
Moorfields Eye Hospital and City of London.
AFFORDABLE
There are three kinds of affordable homes: rented flats and
studios for key workers; flats for Peabody's own tenants; and
shared-ownership flats where it is possible to take out a mortgage
for some of the value of the flat and pay a subsidised rent on the
remainder. These have been mixed with a further 47 flats that have
been sold privately to help fund the development. Space underneath
the homes is being used for a youth club.
The design of the Nile Street site reflects the belief that a
social housing development needs the very highest quality of
design in order to be a success. The developer, Peabody Group, was
awarded Client of the Year in 2004 by the Royal Institute of
British Architects. Architects Munkenbeck and Marshall were
already well known for the luxury developments at Gainsborough
Studios and Paddington Walk. For the Nile Street site, they rose
to the challenge of combining high density housing with a feeling
of quality and spaciousness.
DESIGN
The building is clad in green copper at the Nile Street and
Provost Street elevations and light timber panels in the courtyard
and on other elevations. The projecting balconies - rectangular on
one side of the building and triangular on another - provide an
outdoor room for more than 80 percent of the flats as well as
having a striking effect on the exterior of the building.
The development is centred around a courtyard with silver birch
trees and a water feature that is illuminated at night. In
contrast, some of the flat roofs are designed as formal terraces
which will benefit from the sun at all times of day. The roof
gardens have been furnished with timber benches and planters.
There is a running theme of Egyptian hieroglyphs, tastefully
etched into the glass of the entrance foyer and laser-cut from the
stainless-steel railings. This is a reference to the street that
gives the development its name.
COMMUNITY
The passion for design excellence is evident throughout the
development, so it was a natural decision for the Peabody Group to
celebrate the completion of the project with a two-week
architectural exhibition. The show, held in conjunction with The
Central House art consultancy, featured work by acclaimed
architectural photographer, Etienne Clement, along with striking
images of the innovative new building.
Opened in March 2006, the Blue Hut centre will play a key role in
the new housing development. Suitable facilities for young people
can be crucial to building successful, mixed-tenure communities. A
youth centre and recreational area - including a ball court, music
studio and IT suite - is being provided as part of the new
development. It is easily accessible to local residential
accommodation too.