UPM-724 Public Security: Design and Debates

1 Credits

Through readings, lectures, and case studies, the course examines the ways in which ideas about security and insecurity are socially, politically, and ecologically construed with respect to public space, infrastructure, and cities and how the changing conceptualization of security has influenced the practices of designers, planners, and policymakers. The class reviews the extent to which the privatization of endangered public space has created a security creep that is slowly removing vital public plazas from public occupancy. The class examines contemporary design, planning, and policymaking that seek to create a safe public realm (often through the utilization of new technologies).