Fortress landscapes

• What are fortress landscapes?

  Landscapes designed around security, protection, surveillance and exclusion

  • Gated and guarded communities e.g. Kensington Palace Gardens (super-rich)
• Strategies to tackle crime in fortress landscapes:

  • CCTV
  • Railings and fencing around private space
  • Mosquito alarms which only young can hear to discourage loitering
  • Effective and ↑ street lighting
  • Speed bumps to deter joyriding
• Designing out crime:


  Developing better urban architecture e.g. more fences to mark boundaries, more windows to ↑ surveillance, bins in gated compounds rather than open alleyways

  • Reduce dead ends, recessed doorways
• Designing out crime: exclusion tactics:


  'Anti homeless spikes', mosquito alarms, sloped bus shelters
• EXAMPLE: Hulme Park - designing out crime:


  Problems before the redesign:

  • Burglery
  • Vandalism
  • Drug dealing
  • Theft
  • Mugging
  • Attacks
  • Anti-social behaviour
• EXAMPLE: Hulme Park - designing out crime: features:

  • Park provided permeable boundaries into spaces for different age groups
  • Park 70m wide > ↑ security, recognise age, gender etc
  • Wall constructed using break joints so panels can be easily removed for repairs > cheaper as don't need to replace entire wall > only 1m > passive surveillance
  • Horizontal railings > easy to see through and at an angle to prevent children sitting on them
  • Street lighting
  • Housing overlooks park > passive surveillance
  • Tree removal, only 65 left