Street
Respect
Street Respect is a toolkit of street interventions that get deployed in Boyle Heights with the intention to create a safer, healthier community for everyone. It is an attempt to move from women liberation to human liberation focused on changing community norms, patterns of social interaction, values, customs, and institutions in ways that will significantly improve the quality of life in a community for all of its members
These issues of sexual assault against women or harassment we call women’s issues but they are really societal issues. Trivializing these issues encourages perpetrators to commit bigger crimes leading towards rape. How might we change this?
This thought led me towards researching how we as designers have thought about creating safety for women and the insights suggested that safety was defined by segregation. Is woman safety about ISOLATING?
"How might we create street respect through designing spatial systems?"
RESPONSIBILTY
Design Research
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Human Behaviour
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Space psycology
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Interviews
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Safety through design
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Design equity
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Design toolkits
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Lighting design
Developement of design strategies and policies
Planning and 3D visualisation
ROLE
Spatial experience designer
PROJECT TYPE
Urban Design - Masters Thesis
Elevate
Design Strategy
"How might we elevate the perception of space "?
GOALS:
● Encourage them to walk isolated pathways
● Intervening with spatial elements and
textures that create a platform to learn
collectively
STRATEGY:
● Creating environments that call for
attention through the play of light and
color
● Composition of spatial elements in
the way that creates a sense of visibility.
Design Research
Sofia is a working mom who uses the bus as her daily mode of transportation and has to wait at the stop for 20 mins. The 20 mins can sometimes be very uncomfortable if she is alone or there is the presence of a male passenger. She usually listens to music while at the bus stop or speaks to her partner on the call to feel safer, she says. How might we fight the fear of waiting through design?
SITE RESEARCH
Research of different sites leads me towards Boyle Heights, a Site that is pedestrian friendly. In a Hispanic community, the majority is dependent on public transportation to travel as well as a culturally rich and diverse urban fabric.
A site study was conducted to find the potential spatial interventions that make women feel unsafe and thus the system of Hotspots in the form of bus stops. Voids in the form of parking lots and Gateways in the form of underbridges were determined
HOTSPOTS - BUS STOPS
Research to insights: Delegate
How might spatial systems help delegate with bystanders to intervene ?
Research to insights: Direct
How might spatial systems help directly respond to agressor and empower to be confident, assertive and calm?
Research to insights: Delay
How might spatial systems help delay sitution through sound? 60% of attackers deter from crime on hearing alarm.
Design Intervention
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The form is simple consisting of tubular steel sections that support the roof and slender polycarbonate tubes that illuminate at night converting the safe pod into a safety lantern
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The display screen not only forms a divider between two passengers but also a platform to educate people and is integrated with a safety app to call for help
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As you can see in the section the alert system has two parts the safety app integrated into the screen and the alarm integrated into the polycarbonate light fixtures.
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Safe pod uses warm light to create an inviting appearance for the tubular rods and uses daylight for the spotlights which blurs down as it hits the ground and is not crisp. The change in environment on alert makes the tubular rods blue as Blue lighting accelerates the relaxation process after stress.
Envision
Design Strategy
" How might we envision usage of space?"
GOALS
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Creating a community platform for the
women organization
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Change of perception from empty to
safety
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Fighting fear through the presence of space
and people
STRATEGY
● Activating unused spaces to gather
Design Research
Ovarian psycho's
Bridge runners
L.A. Crime maps
The presence of the women agencies in Boyle Heights that believed in the power of numbers and celebrated sisterhood and brigaded the dangerous streets of Boyle Heights at night brought to the surface the presence of sexual assault in Boyle Heights.
Women agencies forging Activism
Site Research
Further research into the women's agencies helped me understand the needs and requirements of gathering spaces for the agencies. The fact that empty spaces creates a perception of fear in women’s mind leads me towards my second intervention which is to elevate.
VOIDS - PARKING LOTS
Research to Insights
The fact that empty spaces creates a perception of fear in women’s mind leads me towards my second intervention which is to envision usage and perception of space.
Research to Insights
Distraction is a subtle way to intervene. Examples: Ask for directions; Spill your drink “accidentally;” Pretend you know one of them. These are some of the experiences bystanders have shared but it has been overshadowed by bystanders' apathy.
Research to Insights
"How might we create a spatial system that can intervene through distraction?"
The system here is light, the distraction being the projections that are motion censored which helps the victim to walk/run to safety, in this case, the car.
Design Intervention
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The first system is an intervention into the fence that forms a movement guide using light that illuminates whenever someone passes the empty parking lots. This system uses orange LED lighting commands attention and creates energy without the overwhelming feelings associated with red.
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The system in the parking lot responds to movement and projects on the wall to create a distraction. It also consists of a learning lantern that activates when a person is below it. As you see in the video this system uses blue LED strip lights on the floor that create a sense of movement guide towards the lantern. The projections are of cool temperatures whose movement creates a sense of company. The orange shade is used to grab attention.
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Further research into the women's agencies helped me understand the needs and requirements of gathering spaces for the agencies. This intervention creates a community platform for the women's agencies and defines their ownership of the public spaces
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The lantern of education is set in the corner and is enormous with orange led lights to call for attention and eliminate the darkness in corners. The projection is activated once someone is below or in close proximity to the lantern and keeps changing and talks about the different women agencies that exist in the neighborhood and about their experiences.
Encourage
Design Strategy
" How might we encourage movement in space?"
GOALS
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Creating situational
awareness -
Reduce panic
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Creating a sense of
company
STRATEGY
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An element of attention - LIGHT
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An element of sensor - PROXIMITY
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An element of alert - VISION
Design Research
Female victimization is of special interest since gender is one of the most crucial factors affecting fear of violence and geographical mobility in urban areas. Because of fear, women are restricting their access to and activity within public spaces. This in turn creates a complex internal geography of exclusion zones and “take extreme care” zones. This thesis claims that the spatial systems would intervene in the social structure of fear and assure women of their safety so they take a stand and react to their circumstances.
"what you see is how you feel"
Psychology of space
Fighting fear of being followed
She says: “I feel safer when I am aware of my surroundings”
User Persona
Emma attends late-night classes and usually has to walk back home. She is always troubled by the thought that someone might be following her, hence she prefers walking back with a friend or talking on the phone and being very alert about her surroundings.
GATEWAYS - UNDERBRIDGES
Research to insights: Eliminate darkness to enhance spatial textures
Spatial psychology states that we get cues from the environment that makes us feel safe or unsafe. Just like how we feel safe standing close to a gated community and feel unsafe with the thought of the presence of a person behind the bushes
Research to insights: Unaware to aware of surroundings
The intimate space for our closest relationships is 0-18 inches apart, the personal space for family and friends is 18 inches to 4 feet of distance, the social area for casual and professional relationships is 4-10 feet, and the public space for strangers is over 10 feet.
Research to insights: Fear of being caught
Studies show that as much as 60% of perpetrators casing a potential target would indeed be deterred by an alarm system. Change of spatial environment and alarming sound is also designed to break bystanders' apathy.
Design Intervention - Proximity Sensor
The spatial textures surrounding the space make the space look safe or unsafe. The site here has sloped landscape surfaces that form dark areas and the intervention of led panel lights and the play of shadows on the slope create a change in the perception of space
The system is for letting the person being followed know the proximity of the person following through the play of light in the form of LED panel lights embedded in the ceiling which consists of a warm shade that turns into an orange shade as it defines the distance between the individual and the follower.
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