PROFIT FROM PARANOIA

Innovation is a risky business, but trying to innovate products that empower the individual against street crime, or to create designs for public space that can anticipate terrorist intentions, raise many issues.  About safety and freedom, accelerated costs versus profit from paranoia, about personal empowerment and social risk management in public space.

The paper will present two case studies.

The first will look at bikes and bike parking design, from the new Biomega anti theft bike to Biceberg's automated bike parking Facility (8 installations in Spain). As cycling is championed in our cities and citizens embrace the freedom and convenience that cycling has to offer, should this sustainable transport solution anticipate metropolitan concern over terrorist threats in the design process?

Insufficient or inappropriate cycle parking provision to date has forced cyclists to 'fly-park', locking to lamp posts or railings; simultaneously public authorities have banned cycles from parking in 'high risk areas' such as London's Parliament Square. This paper will review troublesome tradeoffs between sustainable design goals and designing against disaster.

The second by will provide a full business analysis of the Karrysafe range of bags and accessories (www.karrysafe.com) addressing the troublesome tradeoffs between making bags secure, and yet avoiding terrorist opportunities to mis-use security functionality.  The paper will also briefly review newly developing Grippa anti bag theft evaluation, linked to communication and other design strategies for transport systems and public space.

Ultimately the paper will consider how and whether the design against crime model of the design process can and should embrace issues about designing out terrorism. This will occur by reviewing the CTO framework created by Prof. Ekblom et al (2005) and considering the impact acknowledging a terrorist threat may have on the projects the Design Against Crime Research Centre are currently engaged in.