Barriers, metal gates create ‘architecture of fear’
Eurekalert.org
December 14, 2010
DENVER (Dec. 14, 2010) – A decade after the 9/11 attacks, significant parts of America’s most prominent downtowns remain largely sealed off as `security zones,’ but a newly published study by University of Colorado Denver professor Jeremy Németh says this has led to blighted landscapes, limited public access and a need for a new approach to urban planning.
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“Our most open, public cities are becoming police states,” said Németh, assistant professor of planning and design whose study was recently published in Environment and Planning A. “While a certain amount of security is necessary after terror attacks, no amount of anti-terror architecture would have stopped the 9/11 attacks, or the Madrid or London subway bombings. And by limiting access and closing off space, we limit the potential for more `eyes on the street’ to catch possible acts in the process.”
But given the reality of continued terror threats like the recent plots to bomb downtown Portland, Ore. and New York City, Németh says `security zones’ must now be considered a new type of land use similar to parks, open space and sidewalks.
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“They must be planned and designed in ways that involve the public and are useful to downtown built environments,” said Németh, director of the Master of Urban Design Program at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning. “Right now they consist of haphazard placement of metal gates, Jersey barriers and cones, but if these are to become permanent additions to the urban landscapes, we must understand how to integrate them into the existing built fabric.”
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