Parks are an amenity provided for recreation and physical activity of children and adults by the city and municipal authorities. Many private society complexes also include parks to make their gated communities more wholesome.
However, in the ever-increasing pace of development and working styles, parks often become the most neglected of spaces in the urban landscape. They may seem to be the most redundant of assets in the infrastructure of city or a town but they are vital places for recreation and play for most urban children due to shrinkage of open spaces in the cities. Eventually, after a period of functioning, many such places fall into disuse due to negligence from the local authorities or the lack of involvement by the public for whom the parks are originally intended. In a short period of time, the parks tend to become places which users eventually associate with high risk environments.
Some of the factors which contribute to this are:
- Poor lighting,
- Confusing layout
- Physical and aural isolation
- Poor visibility
- No access to help
- Areas of concealment
- Poor maintenance
- Vandalism
- Presence of "undesirables"
What is mainly required to create and maintain safer park spaces is an integrative strategy involving design, programming, maintenance and citizen involvement.
To that end, legible design of the park is vital to ensure the sense of security and comfort to its users.
Designing a park for safety is based on what is generally considered to be good design which mainly consists of the following things:
- It meets the needs of its users;
- It is diverse and interesting;
- It connects people with place; and
- It provides people with a positive image and experience.
To this end, the park should be easily understood by adults and children alike. The layout and/or refurbishment of a park should be done with an aim to make it user-friendly.
FORTIFY IS HERE TO HELP!
While our architects, designers and town-planners do a great job in enhancing the beauty of gardens or parks, FORTIFY can help provide substantial inputs about how to make these facilities user-friendly, secure, accessible from the point of safety and dissuasive to criminal elements.
Remember, proactive security is the best gift you can give your loved ones.
Connect with FORTIFY on to know more about how you can empower yourself and others to make amenities like gardens and parks, a truly happy place, sans danger.
-Lt. Col. Omar S. Pathare (retd.), Founder, FORTIFY SECURITY CONSULTING