Essay

This article is the third article in a three part series. To read the first and second article in the series, please click on the links below:

• Previous Article: Designing Architecture for a Sense of Building Safety — Part 1

• Previous Article: Keeping Your Occupants Safe by Building Community — Part 2 

The Many Types of Fear

There are so many places where just approaching a building can cause fear, simply because of the institution type. Take hospitals, for instance. Patients like to feel safe and that they’re getting the best treatment; however, factors like medical technologies that beep and buzz make sounds that can sometimes cause patients to feel fear during their recovery process.

That is one type of fear, but there are others. What about hotel security? For that matter, what about office buildings located in urban settings where their mere locations can pose a threat to occupants.

A building can be wonderful inside, but the way it meets its surrounding site and interacts with its surrounding neighbors can work wonders when trying to turn fear into feelings of safety for occupants.

The Importance of Your Landscape

Actually, simple things can make a big difference. For instance, for apartment complexes you might want to pay particular attention to the height of bushes and the location of the garbage dumpster. It is found that persons “up to no-good” can hide behind or within such nooks.

Another simple thing you can do is to pay attention to how you light the exterior of your building. In addition to creating an entry that is visible so others may offer natural surveillance, lighting can often deter your building from becoming a scary experience for your occupants as they approach and enter at night.

Often, simple solutions can be sparked during the design phase of your building project and you can begin to turn an otherwise fearful experience into a secure one.

Bringing Green-Space and Community Indoors

A bit more complex is dealing with the type of fear that can cause anxiety within a space and actually deter your occupant from having a joyful, healthy and productive experience.

Let’s go back to our original hospital example from the beginning of this article. Fostering community can go a long way to not only reduce feelings of fear, but promote feelings of safety. (1) In a hospital this is extremely important, as too much anxiety and stress can actually have a detrimental affect on a patient’s healing process.

Similar to what I explained in my previous article entitled Keeping Your Occupants Safe by Building Community — Part 2, greenery and community are vital. For our hospital example, these principles can be integrated into the interior. For instance, it has been found that patients with a view of a tree from their hospital room window recover significantly better than those with no view. The same can be said for patients that have a common space within or near their room for their visitors (like family and friends).

Although designing for green areas and shared community spaces might seem simple and somewhat obvious, the trick is to implement these in innovative ways. Once you understand how such simple mind-shifts can improve your designs, your buildings will inherently be able to reduce fear and foster feelings of safety in the right places and at just the right times.

Read the previous articles in this series:

This article is the third article in a three part series. To read the first and second article in the series, please click on the links below:

• Previous Article: Designing Architecture for a Sense of Building Safety — Part 1

• Previous Article: Keeping Your Occupants Safe by Building Community — Part 2

References:

(1) Earthbeat – Safety in cities and the architecture of fear. RNW – Radio Netherlands Worldwide. On Air: September 17-19, 2009.

Image Credit: © Dejanj01 | Dreamstime