Design for Women – Make Places Beautiful…for Safety
As long ago as 1994, the British wine bar brand, All Bar One, set the tone for a new wave of bars and clubs designed for women. The original concept for All Bar One was developed by two enterprising ladies, who wanted a bar ideal for women to have a drink and something to eat without the intimidating and secretive confines of a traditional British pub. As a result, the design of the bars feature huge glass frontage, open spaces and interiors that are bright and airy, making the space seem open, inviting and visibly safe.
Now, a British design group called Women’s Design Service* is using women’s sensitivity to safety issues to design urban open spaces that are both more secure and, counter-intuitively, more inviting. Typical safety-focused design, which advocated clearing trees for security cameras, posting uniformed security guards and erecting railings, made women feel less safe than more traditionally beautiful open spaces. In research, the factor that contributed most highly to women’s sense of safety was ‘a variety of/ lots of other people about’; often they would add ‘smiling people’, ‘happy people’, ‘the sound of children laughing’.
What this means for urban open space design is less use of overt indicators of safety precautions, such as security cameras, fencing and uniformed police officers, and greater appeal to ordinary people, use of uniformed workers (such as garden keeper, etc.) and the simple task of maintaining the open space, making it look cared for.
What a revelation that in beauty and ordinary company we can find safety. It is a valuable reminder to every designer that the apparently obvious design choice is not necessarily the correct solution.
Read more here.
Written by Stuart
David Day | Associates
About the Author: Stuart isn't often heard divulging his shady history. This, unfortunately, is not one of those times.