The growing importance of CPTED in urban design

As towns and cities continue to grow, ensuring safety and well-being becomes a greater challenge for urban design professionals. 

Public spaces bring communities together, but increased demand can result in people feeling isolated or excluded. Rising crime rates, urban densification, and social isolation create obstacles to participating in urban life: and the perceptions of crime and inequality become magnified. Therefore, it is even more important that we prioritise people in the design of our places and create a public realm that is safe, attractive, and accessible for everyone through a greater understanding of user experience.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a concept developed in the 1960’s, but in today’s environment its principles become increasingly valuable in our pursuit of safer communities. CPTED acknowledges the significant impact of the physical environment on people’s behaviour and proposes that by implementing deliberate design strategies we can create spaces that discourage criminal activity, elevate safety measures, and enhance the overall well-being of people. As CPTED continues to evolve, the intersection of urban design and CPTED increasingly overlaps, paving the way for safer and more harmonious environments.

CPTED has gained prominence in New Zealand through a range of national policy documents and frameworks. Policy makers and organisations are placing greater emphasis on the importance of CPTED in project planning and design processes, raising its profile in urban development and rightfully making CPTED a key part of a project life cycle.

The core principles of CPTED revolve around surveillance, access management, territorial reinforcement, and quality environments. These principles aim to increase the supervision of the public realm, control access to some spaces, foster community ownership and achieve well-designed place that are maintained over the long time. A skilled CPTED Practitioner will have a deep understanding of what these principles mean and how and when they can be applied to the design process.

A key commonality between urban design and CPTED is the importance of truly understanding a place: which means listening to the community and applying a collaborative approach to design. The process involves understanding the specifics of place, the cultural and communities nuances, by analysing how people access and move around spaces, identifying user risks, conducting site assessments, and mapping safety issues. This CPTED process overlaps with good practice Urban Design and the principles outlined in the Urban Design Protocol.

Better integration of CPTED into Urban Design practice and projects offers numerous benefits. Like Urban Design, greater involvement early on in a process ensures broader scale concepts (such as connectivity, spatial allocation and land use) are addressed before delving into the detail, and missing key project risks and opportunities. It ensures consideration of different user needs and aspirations, and enabling design outcomes that encourage positive uses of public spaces to discourage negative behaviours.

Through the integration of CPTED principles into project life cycles and a genuine commitment to community engagement, we can build cities that prioritise safety, inclusivity, and a sense of belonging for all. This will ensure we are better places to tackle the challenges around crime prevention within the urban environment and achieve more liveable communities where residents can thrive, contributing to the social wellbeing and liveability of our cities.