Assignment 5 (A): Planning for the Future.

Design Studies assignment 5 asks us to develop the topic we researched and wrote about in semester one into a research proposal. Using the knowledge and techniques we have gained so far to investigate the subject.

 Research Proposal.

The subject chosen for investigation is, ‘How the surrounding environment can affect crime.’ The interest in this subject began after reading ‘The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell. There is a section in this book that describes how the rise and fall of crime in New York City was affected by the state of the environment. Crime was at its highest when the environment was at its worst. After New York enforced their no tolerance policy and cleaned up the streets crime reduced greatly. Further research was then undertaken by looking up and reading books and journals relating to the topic. Two that were found to be the most relevant were ‘The Environment and Social Behaviour’ by Irwin Altman and ‘Street Management and City Design’ by E.P. Fowler as they both looked into how the physical environment affects people and their behaviour. This proposal will discuss what methods will be used to research the chosen subject, also to plan when and how it will be done.

The research will be undertaken in the city of Dundee. Firstly the crime rates in different areas of the city will be identified the areas with the highest and lowest rates of crime will be selected. These areas will be visited and observed noting down the surroundings and goings on, for example; is there any graffiti? Are the streets clean and tidy? What are the habits of the people there? This will generate insight into each area and differences between the two will emerge. A general understanding of the area should now be obtained however this alone will not be enough, speaking to the people who live there will be necessary.

Informal interviews with people who live in each area will be useful to gain personal opinions on why they think their community has that crime rate. People who live in the high crime rate area will be asked why they think crime is so high in their area and what they think can be done to decrease it. In the low crime rate areas they will be asked why they think it is low and what stops people in that area from committing crime. This should hopefully give some inside knowledge and lead to other questions that will prove useful in showing how the environment affects behaviour towards crime.  Informal interviews will make people feel at ease and therefore more likely to contribute valuable answers. The interviews will be conducted in a relaxed environment where people feel comfortable, perhaps with tea and biscuits in someone’s living room, or at a local community centre or coffee morning where groups of people are likely to be socialising. Hazel White a jeweller, who now works at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, found that informal interviews worked well for her. When she was gathering information for her research she went along to knitting clubs to speak to members of a community, she found that in a relaxed social space people were more willing to talk. Interviews may not be useful in cases where people want to remain anonymous this is why questionnaires will also be provided so that people can write down their true thoughts if they are worried they may be judged.

Brainstorming sessions and group sketching can be used to generate ideas of how to stop crimes being committed. It will suggest future ways of improving the community whilst also pointing out the ways in which the current environment is affecting behaviour at the moment. These sessions will also stimulate conversation and provoke new thoughts.

The people that are committing the crimes will be given questionnaires and interviewed if they are willing. They will be asked what caused them to turn to crime and if they feel their environment had any affect on this? Do they think that if their environment was different they would have been less likely to commit the crime?

Local police officers should be spoken to, finding out their opinion on how each environment affects the crime rate. The types of crimes committed in each area might link with something specific with the environment in that area, for example if the area has a lot of graffiti other people may be encouraged to graffiti as well. It could be useful to find out about the police prevention techniques and how they deal with the crime in the community and whether or not these techniques are working. There may be limitations to speaking with the police as they might not be authorised to pass on some information however any information gained will be valuable.

This research will be carried out during a one year period this will create the opportunity to observe the environment of each area at different times throughout the year. Will the summer generate more activities keeping people occupied with other things instead of crime? Or as it gets colder in the winter will people be more likely to stay indoors and less likely to be out committing crime? The work will mainly be carried out alone but a group will be brought together at different stages in the process to discuss findings, create new ideas and opinions. Discussion in a group will help stimulate the research from time to time. Once all the information has been gathered the results will be analysed between two and three weeks. A conclusion will then be made about how the surrounding environment affects crime. 

Assignment 4: Reading and Reviewing.

In our fourth and final assignment of semester one, we have been asked to choose one book and one journal article from the previous assignment to read in more depth and review. The book I have chosen is ‘The Environment and Social Behaviour’ by Irwin Altman and ‘Street Management and City Design’ by E.P. Fowler is the journal article that I will review.

‘The Environment and Social Behaviour’ is about human and social behaviour in relation to the physical environment. The books main purpose is to examine how we use the environment in the course of social interaction looking at four main concepts; privacy, personal space, territory and crowding. The author wants to tie these four concepts together as usually they are looked at separately by different disciplines.  He believes mixing disciplines such as social and natural science with practitioner disciplines, (architects and interior designers) will develop a greater understanding between the environment and social behaviour. The author believes that the concept of privacy is central and connects all four concepts. He will suggest that territorial behaviour and personal space are ways in which people try to regulate their desired level of contact with others. Crowding is where these measures have not worked ending up with undesired social contact.

Irwin Altman looks into his concepts of personal space, territorial behaviour and crowding more closely and uses secondary sources to inform his judgements. Within the subject of personal space a key source that was used was from an anthropologist Edward Hall (1966). Hall looked at four personal distance zones in his book ‘The Hidden Dimension’, and outlined hypothesised differences among cultures and spacing behaviour. This showed that people use space to communicate with one another and that different cultures use this space differently.

Within the concept of crowding Sommer (1969) is a source which shows how people respect boundaries which are not physical. Sommer analyses a neighbourhood in Chicago and observes a street which was dominated by blacks while the very next street was dominated by Irish whites the two rarely crossing over.

The author feels practitioners and designers must translate work to each other, understanding each other’s styles and accepting differences. Designers must bring together information such as other points of view, researchers’ knowledge, their own knowledge and practical demands when designing environments.  The physical environment must be shaped to fit man to help him perform affectively.  The conclusion the author believes to be most fruitful is designing flexible environments that can be manipulated and altered.

If we take this line of reasoning seriously, that when the physical environment is shaped to fit a person they perform better, we may begin to create environments that are changeable.  Then these changeable environments may for example dissolve tense situations or bring people closer together, all in all creating a more harmonious environment for people to live in. This may also lead to a decrease in crime as surroundings will be less threatening and will help create a positive atmosphere.

The journal article ‘Street Management and City Design’ looks at how city design and the physical environment affect human behaviour. The main purposes of this article are to firstly define the physical characteristics of the post war city and suburb. To then explore their significance for street level management. Finally the author wants to test Jane Jacobs’ hypothesis that physical diversity in cities encourages neighbours to relate to each other and discourages crime.

Jane Jacobs was a writer and an activist. Her primary interest was in communities, urban planning and decay. Her work is a key source for the author and her controversial book ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ (1961) has been examined closely by Fowler.  Jacobs’ main theory was that lack of physical diversity in our cities discourages people from taking responsibility for the dull job of looking after our streets.  She felt that physical diversity could only be achieved if four points were met. These are; a mixture of land uses, concentration of uses, mixing old and new buildings and having short blocks. Jacobs’ felt that “physical design could help or hinder recognition of neighbours which in turn influenced a degree of informal control over street behaviour especially of children and outsiders”. She believed this informal control is the main ingredient in safer streets.  The author looks at Jacobs’ four points more closely in her article carrying out a study of her own to see if the physical environment does affect human behaviour.

Fowler analyses 19 areas which are handpicked, all to be as different as possible in relation to; land use, concentration of use, building age and block length. The data is collected through questionnaires, the Canadian Census, the police, maps, planning data and observation of the area.

The author found that part of Jacobs’ thesis was supported by the data, it supports the fact that effective neighbourhood management stems from physical diversity. The data agrees with Jacobs’ theory of mixing land use and having short blocks, as many residents in areas of high density combined with mixed land use, short blocks and new buildings  felt optimistic about the safety in that area.

This article suggests that lack of physical diversity in our cities have a negative effect on social behaviour resulting in higher crime rates. It suggests that to decrease this negative effect we would need to build more physically diverse cities. However this may not be straightforward as not everyone may want a city like this, to quote Gans some people may want “the quiet and privacy obtainable in low density neighbourhoods and elevator apartment houses.”

The two chosen texts that I looked at more closely have the same opinion that the physical environment affects people and their behaviour. Although their main topic is the same they both look into different issues. The first text, ‘The Environment and Social Behaviour’ suggests that environments should be created to be flexible so that a person can alter their contact with others depending on their mood, which would in turn decrease tense situations leading to a decrease in crime. The second text, ‘Street Management and City Design’ states that a more physically diverse city will create a more harmonious city.

 I feel these books have given a good insight into the environment and how it can affect human behaviour. Carrying out research of my own may help me achieve a better understanding of the environment and the affects it has on human behaviour. I think observing human behaviour in different parts of my city may be interesting. Finding out the different crime rates of specific areas and looking at the surroundings in these areas and how they differ from each other may be a useful starting point. Interviewing people who live in these areas and finding out what their lives are like and if they think that their area affects how they live and act might also prove useful. Doing this would create evidence that is specific to my city, I think it would also help me to understand the topic in greater detail as I would be experiencing first hand and creating my own opinions.

To get a broader understanding of what effects crime I think I should look more closely at the other books I found in assignment 3. ‘The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education’ by Clive Belfield and Henry Levin looks into the costs of investing in good education and not doing so. This could be something that affects someone’s life choices leading them to live in a certain area which in turn could affect their behaviour and whether or not they will commit crime.

I do feel that the book and the journal article that I have chosen to write about in this assignment were the most relevant to my chosen subject of how the environment can change people and cause them to commit crime.

Bibliography:

Altman, Irwin. (1975) ‘The Environment and Social Behaviour’. Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc.: Belmont, California.

Belfield, Clive, R. and Levin, Henry, M. (2007) ‘The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education’.  The Brookings Institution: Washington D.C.

Box, Steven. (1987) ‘Recession, Crime and Punishment’. The Macmillan Press Ltd.: Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Dahlberg, Matz and Gustavsson, Magnus. (2007)’ Inequality and Crime: Separating the Effects of Permanent and Transitory Income’. Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the Department of Economics: University of Oxford.

Fowler, E.P. (1987) ‘Street Management and City Design.’ Social Forces, vol. 66, no. 2, pages 365-389

Hensworth, Simon. (2008) ‘Designing to Prevent Crime: Crime Prevention through Environmental Design.’ Architecture Australia, vol.97, issue 2, pages 111-112.

Jacobs, Jane. (1961) ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’.  Random House: New York 

Roncek, Dennis, W. (1981) ‘Dangerous Places: Crime and Residential Environment.’ Social Forces, vol.60, no. 1, pages 74-96.

Design Studies Assignment 3: Looking Up, Looking Down.

For our third Design Studies Assignment we were asked to identify useful resources on our topic from Assignment two. The topic I have looked further into is Crime; the different causes of crime, how design effects crime and how a bad environment can increase crime.  I found a selection of useful books and journals using the Dundee University library and their Cross Search website.  I have produced a bibliography of these texts below.

Altman, Irwin. (1975) ‘The Environment and Social Behaviour’. Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc.: Belmont, California.

This book analyses the concepts of privacy, crowding, territory and personal space in humans. Altman examines how people are affected by the physical environment and how this shapes their social interaction with others. This is a book I’d like to look more closely at. It discusses that people are attracted to commit crime if design isn’t distinctive enough. The ideas in this book can be used as guiding principles in environmental design.

Belfield, Clive, R. and Levin, Henry, M. (2007) ‘The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education’.  The Brookings Institution: Washington D.C.

Belfield and Levin examine the costs of investing in good education and the costs of not doing so. They write that educational attainment is one of the most important determents of how a child’s life will turn out. It will affect their employability, income, health, housing and their social status to name a few. I found this text useful as it talks about crime and where it might stem from. Bad education may be the root or the beginnings for someone who turns to crime.

Box, Steven. (1987) ‘Recession, Crime and Punishment’. The Macmillan Press Ltd.: Basingstoke, Hampshire.

This book discusses why recession may cause crime and confirms this with evidence. It states that income inequality results in crime and social policies must aim to reduce inequality to reduce crime. This text would back up my thoughts from assignment two that the recession, inequality and social status affects whether or not someone will commit crime.

Dahlberg, Matz and Gustavsson, Magnus. (2007)’ Inequality and Crime: Separating the Effects of Permanent and Transitory Income’. Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the Department of Economics: University of Oxford.

This paper was written to show the effects transitory income and permanent incomes have on crime.  Dahlberg and Gustavsson have broken down income into two parts (transitory and permanent) as most other papers just look at income as a whole. They did this as they feel permanent income effects crime rates more that transitory income, as an individual’s permanent position in society is the main factor in whether or not they will commit crime. 

Fowler, E.P. (1987) ‘Street Management and City Design.’ Social Forces, vol. 66, no. 2, pages 365-389.

Fowler discusses and tests some of Jane Jacobs’s ideas about how the physical diversity in cities encourages neighbours to relate to each other, discouraging crime. Fowler wants to show that our cities today lack diversity and are almost inviting crime. Jane Jacobs was a writer and an activist her primary interest was in communities, urban planning and decay. This journal again links with the topic of our environment changing how we act.

Hensworth, Simon. (2008) ‘Designing to Prevent Crime: Crime Prevention through Environmental Design.’ Architecture Australia, vol.97, issue 2, pages 111-112.

This article is about crime prevention and how projects would be more successful when security needs are considered at the beginning of the design process and not added after. It is based on embedding safety and security into the built environment. It discusses natural surveillance, territorial reinforcement and natural access control. This would be helpful when trying to decrease crime as it suggests ways of changing the environmental surroundings to deter criminals. I found this article very interesting.

Roncek, Dennis, W. (1981) ‘Dangerous Places: Crime and Residential Environment.’ Social Forces, vol.60, no. 1, pages 74-96.

Roneck looks at how characteristics of a residential area in the city affect where crimes occur. The text gives an understanding of the reasons for a rise in crime. He shows the variance in crime depends on opportunities provided by the social and physical different ion of the city.

 I’ve composed a list of the top websites I like to check to keep up with developments in Interior and Environmental Design:

 http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/
An american website/blog. Good to look at for inspiration with interior design in general and furniture design. I like this website because there's always something different and a little quirky.

http://www.designboom.com/eng/
This website was introduced to me by one of my tutors. It features design, architecture and art. Some things on the website are quite crazy and out there. I like that it's not ordinary, it's fun and encourages to think outside the box. 

http://www.digsdigs.com/
A home design website but not your average home design website. The objects shown on this site are everyday objects with a twist. Inspirational.

http://www.thesocietyofbritishinteriordesign.org/
We had a talk last year from someone from the Society of British Interior Design to encourage us to become members. As I am a budding British Interior Designer I'm looking into this and like to see how the society is progressing.

http://www.treehugger.com/
Keeps me up to date with "green" designs and the environmental issues we are facing in the world.

Also a list of top websites to keep up to date with goings on in the world in general:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/
BBC iplayer is good for catching up on radio 4 programmes and any television programmes that are useful, whether it's the news or a programme about design.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
A reliable website to keep up to date with world news.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/
I prefer this website to the BBC news website for some reason, I think I prefer the layout. Again I use it to keep up to date with world news and other stories that catch my eye.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/
This website allows you to watch sky news live which is useful for keeping up to date with the news as it happens.

Think Big! Design Studies Assignment 2

For our second Design Studies assignment we were asked to ‘Think Big’ and brainstorm the topic we chose in the last assignment to see how it connects with Interior and Environmental Design. The topic I chose in the last assignment was ‘the Rise and Fall of Crime in New York City’.

                                                                                                                                                               

Assignment 1 Mind Map.

I got together with a couple of girls from my class and did a brainstorming session with them. At the beginning we were all struggling a little but once we started writing down ideas it became easier and other ideas began to form. We all had different topics so set a time limit for each topic to brainstorm them individually. Our ideas ranged from the serious to the silly. We suggested integrating graffiti into the community by having specific areas where people can graffiti. Another idea was self washing walls, so that when someone put graffiti on it the graffiti would be automatically washed off. The ideas that I began to look more closely at were that a better home environment can create a better life and a person who is less likely to commit crime.

After brainstorming we went away to discuss our results. We thought again about our topics. For my topic we discussed why people are likely to commit crime. We also looked back at the book ‘The Tipping Point’ and the examples of why crime fell in New York City.

How can Interior Design make an impact on crime? I began to think in depth about this and the idea that if you are happy at home you will be less likely to commit crime,  if you live in a rat hole you’ll act like a rat was a point made in ‘The Tipping Point’. Economic recession sometimes leads to higher crime rates. In a recession people can’t afford as much as they used to and therefore may have to resort to crime to get what they want. Creating affordable ways to achieve beautiful home interiors may reduce crime as people will be able to afford the environment they want to have in their home. A lot of people still like to ‘Keep up with the Joneses’ and feel like a social outcast or inferior if they don’t, this may lead to anger causing people to turn to crime. Affordable interiors again would help hold on to status, make people feel socially accepted and happier. Recycling or up-cycling old furniture would also be an affordable way to change how a home looks the “vintage” style is becoming more and more popular.  I have developed this idea into a poster. I do apologise my poster making skills are not the best but I thought I would attempt it, practice makes perfect after all!

The poster shows an ex criminal relaxing in his home watching the news which tells us that crime has fallen. To the right of him hanging up is his swag bag and the stereotypical robber’s uniform, this is supposed to link with the saying ‘hanging up your gloves’ which means to quit or retire, showing that he no longer commits crime. The flowers, phone and the rest of the furniture are to show that he has a nice affordable home which is his reason for stepping away from crime.

I have also created a Mind Map to show my thinking.