PhD research in Design | Design for Urban Reassuring Scenario

Uninhabit Fears

DESIGN for URBAN REASSURING SCENARIO

Daniela Petrillo XXVIII cycle | PhD in Design section | Landscape Environment & Mobility research unit | Design for Hospitable Cities supervisor | Prof. Agnese Rebaglio

Tram stop - Gratosoglio Neighborhood (Milan) - December 2014 / ph. by Daniela Petrillo

RESEARCH ABSTRACT

The goal of this research is to investigate the relationship between fear and safety in the daily urban experience. The analysis of this theme starts from the previous experiences developed by criminology, urban planning and architecture disciplines (Newman, 1971; Jacobs, 1961; Jaffrey, 1961), but considers fear as diffuse hardship and not stricly a crime consequence (Bannister, J., Fyfe, N; 2001).

As the "paradigm of difficult dwelling" shows, there are three main elements able to influence negatively the life in the city: the lack in the housing offer, the missing ethnical and

keywords: #fear #fear of crime #hardship #defensible #

cultural integration and the building decay (Lavarra, 2007).

The research framework is identified in the contribution of Lorenc, T. in "Crime, fear of crime, environment, and mental health and wellbeing: Mapping review of theories and causal pathways" (2012). The scheme is here completely redesigned (img. 1) in order to be functional to a research through design. The elements of the framework inquired in this work are: the built envioronment, the social built environment, the wellbeing and the individual area (cognitive biases). Other elements

#urbanenvironment #wellbeing #suburbs #urbaninteriordesign #publicspace #inclusion #convivial #aestethics

as the mass media and social representation or the national policies are treated as based conditions able to shape and influence directly the the context.

The research questions are focused on how design, and in particular urban interior design, can intervene to face the perceived unsafety with innovative tools, decreasing the scale factor and the amount of municipality's interventions in public spaces. At the same time, this work inquiry the already-known design models, methods and tools and it aims to use them to built (or support) processes and

projects related to the topic of urban safety.

The first result of this work consist in two maps. The first one is named "reassuring processes" and it was realized classifing 20 European best practises as "top down" (practices of control) and "bottom up" (practices of resistences). The project developed at the end of this research finds its position in a strategic middle point between the two approaches. The second map is named "reassuring languages" and it consist in a quartile scheme where 40 projects are distributed on the strenght of their scale factor (from product to system) and their

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The scheme is redeveloped from the theoritetical framework proposed in "Crime, fear of crime, environment, and mental health and wellbeing: Mapping review of theories and causal pathways"

by T. Lorenc, S. Clayton and D. Neary

lifetime (from permanent to temporary). Each value has four more interpretations (collective, individual, interactive, indipendent) useful to settle different strategies.

All of these contributions are tested on the field in two council neighborhoods in Milan, aiming to become a strategic integration for the still-on-going official urban regeneration programs.

The expected output involves citizens in a partecipatory process in order to built a common identity and to improve their sense of awareness; then to work with them on the field

to improve the quality of the environment.

The Reassuring Scenario is a result of a complex design strategy. Perceived safety does not pass only through objects and devices but through social interactions too, and with its powerful is able to connect and create or reinforce human networks and systems.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

“Pressure is around every corner and human resilience necessary for survival can be surprising. Such resilience reminds us how powerful can be. How safe we are depends on our perception of what is at hand and protect us.�

P. Antonelli in "Safe. Design Takes On Risk" Catalogue Exhibition held @ MoMA, NYC October, 16th 2005 /Janurary 2006

keywords: #what #where #which #why #how #metaph

1. Is fear only a product of the criminogenic conditions, which appear to have thrived in urban environment? Or is fear more related to the concept of city-dwelling, a metaphor for the quality of urban life?

2. Why the design discipline has to focus its attention in the field of urban environment and, in particular, to the fear & safety issues?

3. Considering fear as result of different stimulus and influences, what about the connection between urban interior design and psy-

hor #humanities psychology #language #features #methods #new #design #inclusion #policy #debate #practice #

chology or environmental psychology?

4. If fear is related to the concept of city-dwelling, which are the hardship's physical features in the urban context? And where are they located on different scale?

5. Considering the current European trend, which emphasize the value of the "human heritage", how to apply the concept of "inclusion" in our "safe" and "exclusive" cities? concept become a synonym of safety as a new answer to fear?

6. How to put in practice the design methods to contribute in the debate about "fear and safety in urban environment"?

GRATOSOGLIO

Via Baroni - Gratosoglio Neighborhood (Milan) - July 2014 ph. by Daniela Petrillo

"Your fears erased here daily" project - Burning Man, Nevada - 2006

RESEARCH PROCESS

The entire process is divided in the "desk" and "field" phases. As the scheme shows, the process is linear with some forth-back episodes. The interest for the urban fear issue, here recognized in the problematic area, starts with a previous research made by the author around the relationship between the prison and the city (cfr the Master thesis "About Love and Pain) .

The literature research remains in the background and it follows through the entire process. Both of the phases are composed by an explorative and an interpretative stages. They

keywords: #linear #desk #headon #field #handson #lite

start with the preliminary research questions and the achieved results are the hinge that lead to the following phase.

In each stage is possible to distinguish three different kind of elements: the standard research, the design research and other contributions.

STANDARD RESEARCH ELEMENTS: . Literature Research, . Framework definition, . Research Questions, . Empirical Works.

This is the beginning of the research and the

erature #framework #questions #empirical #euristic #srvd #workshop #actionresearch #tools #map #scenarios

largest part was developed in collaboration with . DACRC - Design Against Crime Research Centre at Central Sain Martins School (UAL), London (UK) - September > December 2013, During this period, the ground work was shaped in order to define a methodology of inquiry, in a Socially Responsive Design's perspective.

DESIGN RESEARCH ELEMENTS (design tools): . Workshops, . Maps, . Scenario Definition, . Focus Groups,

. Actions.

During this second part of the research the most influent collaboration was with . DASTu - Architecture and Urban Planning Department at Politecnico di Milan (Prof. F. Cognetti) - January 2013 > April '14.

The multidisciplinary one-year-long experience within the research workshop “Mapping San Siro� was useful to position the research in a wider (and already open) discourse. The main elements of the frameworks (wellbeing, social environment, built environment) were analysed in depth on the field with an

ethnographic approach in the beginning, and then with focus groups, surveys and reliefs of the built areas. The gained knoweldge were crucial during the tutoring activities in the 2014/15 a.y for the Final Design Studio Course at the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano "REloading Spaces - Feed the Planet" within the program POLIsocial and Mapping San Siro.

OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS: Due to this multidisciplinar approach, the main contributions collected during this work

with interviews, lectures and activities are from: . Environmental Psychology; .. CIRPA - Joint Research Centre on Environmental Psychology at University of Rome, La Sapienza (Prof. M. Bonaiuto) - November '14; . Criminology; .. TRANSCRIME - Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime at Cattolica University of Milan (Prof. E. Savona) - January '14;

. Sociology; .. PROGEST - Department of Sociology and Social Science Research at Bicocca University of Milan (Prof. R. Cornelli) - February '13; . Policy . MUNICIPALITY OF MILAN - Safety and Social Cohesion Department - March > December '14: the project “Adolescents and Safety” in Gratosoglio Neighborhood funded by Municipality of Milan thanks to the law 285/1997 – promotion of right and opportunity for childhood and adolescence. In collaboration with Lo

Scrigno Association and Amapola.

House and Demesne Department - September'11 > onward: collaboration through the Tutoring activities held for the different editions of the Final Design Studio (3rd year, BA Degree) at Politecnico di Milano.

RESEARCH'S PLACES

SAN SIRO It was realized between 1935/27 in the NW area of Milan by a group of famous italian architects as F. Albini. In the beginning San Siro was one of the bigger council estate with 6.110 small apartments. Its rationalist plan is still recognizable in the fabric of the city and, as in the past, it has the same inadequacies. The buildings' density is higer than the green areas and there are not enough public services within. Due to the lack in the housing offers, in the last few years San Siro became a land of squatters and un-illegal immigrants, increasing the interior conflicts among the inhabitants.

keywords: #councilneighborhoods #milan #suburbs

GRATOSOGLIO It was realized in the 60's in the south area of the city by the italian group BBPR acoording to the modernist style. The entire borough is composed by 52 linear buildings and 8 towers and it was enriched by public services as stores, green areas and schools. The area is characterized by the presence of an important junction that divide the neighborhood in two main parts. Due to the enviromental features and their distribution, this place is characterized by "inactive" and "active" portions. The critical matters of the first group are emphasized by the strong vertical dimension.

San Siro

"The existing public housing heritage" Map with GIS Elaboration based on data by Comune di Milano (2013) - p. 19 on "Vuoti a rendere" by F. Cognetti

Gratosoglio

SAN SIRO

Via Abbiati, 2 - January 2014 ph. by Daniela Petrillo for Mapping San Siro

GRATOSOGLIO Via Baroni - July 2014 ph. by Daniela Petrillo

SAN SIRO

Via Micene, 2 - January 2013 ph. by Daniela Petrillo for Mapping San Siro

GRATOSOGLIO

Via Baroni - November 2014 ph. by Daniela Petrillo

Both of these neighborhoods are involved in the "Contratto di Quartiere II" Program. This is a tool for the building/urban requalification and for the local empowerment. The program aim to solve the "decay" according to its wider meaning: not just infrastructures and neglected spaces, but relationships and social cohesion in context with a high level of poverty and hardship and mainly composed by Council Estate.

They don't correspond as "hot spots" of crime (cfr. Transcrime report, 2012), but the suffer the stigma from the "outside" and the perceived fear is implied in the places.

OTHER SUBJECTS . Position on the urban territory . Relationship with the city . Historical and cultural heritage . Building heritage (quantity - quality) . Demographic composition . Typology of dwelling . Public Spaces (quantity - quality) . Practice of use . Number of stakeholders and activities

RESEARCH METHODS

The research is characterized by a mixed methods approach and the entire work is conducted to gain a qualitative research. It implies an emphasis on the qualities of entities and it looks for commonality by examining many aspects of a small numbers of cases in depth. The comparative method is useful for understanding diversity in a moderate number of cases in a comprehensive manner.

Coherently with the two main research phases (desk and field), the entire strategy is composed by the following methods:

keywords: #deskphase #qualitative #literaturereview #c

. Desk phase .. literature review; .. case studies analysis; .. best practices analysis; . Field phase .. ethnography; .. socially responsive design; .. codesign.

DESK PHASE Literature review These contributions come from the urban planning and architecture disciplines. The most

casestudies #bestpractices #strategy #clusters #fieldphase #ethnography #observation #surveys #srvd #codesign

relevant one is the O. Newman book "Defensible Space" (1971). Considering the five pillars of CPTED, the research moved towards to two other points of view: the the Kevin Lynch approach about the personal experience in the city (1960) and the Jane Jacobs one about the complexity of public life (1961). The main goal is to design a research path that lead the process from the concept of "defensible" to the concept of "convivial" (Shaftoe, 2012). The convivial space is an arena, a place to share and transform, a place with a built common identity and, for these reasons, a place to take care of and to preserve.

Case Studies and Best Practices Analysis These two methods are here combined. The theoretical framework, identified through the literature review, permits to settle the parameters according to which establish the indicators and determinate the trends.

In this way there were analysed 2 relevant European Case Studies (Nørrebro in Copenhagen and Peckham in London), 15 Europeans best practices classified as "top down" and "bottom up", and 30 design projects classified in a quartile system considering their lifetime (from temporary to permanent) and for their nature (from product to system).

PECKHAM

Peckam Peace Wall @ Peckam Library London - September 2013

NĂ˜RREBRO

Superkilen Project - Copenhagen

FIELD PHASE Ethnography This part was developed in different periods (from January 2013 and is still running); places (in San Siro and Gratosoglio Neighborhoods) and way (alone or with a team). The main activities were architectural relief, observation and informal surveys with the inhabitants. Semistructured surveys were realized with professionals in different fields (sociologist, psychologist, researcher,urbanist, educator...). The aim of these tasks is to examine in depht the local context, intertwining the social characters with the built environment.

Socially Responsive Design This part was developed in collaboration with the Design Against Crime Research Center in London and it attempts to work with existing networks where they are in place, which may include government as well as market and business mechanisms. The entire work was applied in the San Siro and Gratosoglio in collaboration with the Municipality through the Laboratories of Neighborhoods. The strategy considers the local context under the economic point of view, analyzing the community anchors and stakeholders. Then it examines their activities and their users in order to un-

In the "Reassuring Langages" Scheme are collected and classified 30 design projects. They can be combined in order to built a site specific strategy to actively intervene in the environment.

derstand the needs related to spaces and services and the way to engage citizens in a partecipatory process focused on the quality of their own environment.

Codesign This part includes two activities developed in two different moments. Both of them could be carried out in collaboration with the Laboratoires of Neighborhoods and work around the community identity issue. The first activity described in this research consists in a photographic recognition useful to understand the citizens' point of views. With more than one

open debate, all the images are clusterized in order to identify the neighborhood's priorities.

Then, these are intertwined with the SRVD strategy to assign specific tasks to the specific stakeholders.

The second co-design tool is the sketching group session. This task was not already realized but its aim is to work with the people on the potentialities of their own daily places, envisioning a designed reassuring public spaces.

RESEARCH GLOSSARY

Anticity term coined by S. Boeri (cfr. Anticittà - Laterza, Bari, 2011) in order to describe the crucial role of the suburbs in the current italian landscape. The peripheric areas are not far from the inner centre, they are not separated from the city.

The concept of periphery is diffuse and it depends from a lack of services (and cultural) offer.

Cpted Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behavior through environmental design. It was originally coined and formulated by criminologist C. Ray Jeffery.

Convivial Space term proposed by Henry Shaftoe in his book "Convivial Urban Spaces" (2012). He gives examples on how to improve the quality of particular urban sites (squares, plazas, pocket-parks...) because they are a true mark of civilisation. Despite we get them wrong and they become underused, mis-

keywords: #anticity #boeri #crimeprevention #jeffrey #

used or abandoned, they are crucial to health, happiness, democracy and even the urban economy.

Defensible Space The defensible space theory by Oscar Newman encompasses ideas about crime prevention and neighborhood safety.

The theory is explained in the same book "Defensible Space" (1972). The book pointed out that higher crime rate existed in high-rise apartment buildings than in lower housing projects in NYC. Throughout his study, Newman focused on explaining his ideas on social control, crime prevention, and public health in relation to community design.

DHoC - Design for Hospitable Cities The term “hospitable” is referred to the capability of a city to be a device able to be open, accessible, sustainable; able to manage people mobility, to regenerate public spaces, to offer an intelligent variety of services.

#convivial #shaftoe #defensible #newman #hospitablecities #sociallyresponsive #uid #beauty #unpleasant

SRVD - Socially Responsive Design

by L. Gamman and A. Thorpe from DACRC (Design Against Crime Research Centre @ Central Saint Martins - UAL, London) is a design approach that takes social issues (crime, health or ageing for example) as primary drivers. The social impact and the social change is delivered through objects, systems or services in which deflection or prevention of crime is integrated within the designed functionality.

Urban interior design is the discipline that designs the non-built areas - squares, private and public space for common use, streetscapes, inbetween areas, urban landscapes, urban gardens, terrain vagues - both existing and future ones to be determined.

Taking into consideration both container and content. Such urban voids conceived in connection with the equipment of the space, furnishing, lighting, communication network, underground network. Both in their permanent set and for several interpretation and use of space through temporary exhibitions.

Practices of ahestetic resistence concept described by A. Lambertini in her book "Urban Beauty!". She collected different European projects settled in various urban context and all of these aim to build (more) beautiful daily places. From green areas to neglected spaces, the author proposes four main strategies to improve the urban landscape and its livability.

Unpleasant design concept by G. Savicic and S. Savic, Unpleasant design is an accumulation of urban phenomena in which social control and its inherent design are playing a significant role in the way we perceive and engage in public, semi-public and semiprivate space. The research range starts from architectural interventions within the built environment, to electronic devices modifying and diffusing our lived environment.

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SAN SIRO RELOADING SPACES | POLIMI Final Design Studio - Bachelor Degree Tutoring activity

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