Tuesday 22 December 2009

Business Crime Aberdeen


I have made this image to visualise some of the information I received back from the Grampian Police. The graph is an Elevation of Aberdeen from the south. The colours on the Plan view can all be seen from the Elevation. The red peak seen rising to the top of the page is the city centre which has a staggering 3,345 incidents of commercial crime.

Aberdeen Police Division Areas


Aberdeen is split into 6 different areas, each area is then broken down into smaller areas and assigned with a code which is policed on a far more manageable scale. The information I received back from the police contains the number of crimes against businesses in these areas from January 2008 to October 2009.

Monday 14 December 2009

Bed Shop


The vectors above were part of a mini-brief project which involved visualising the application of some of the research findings. It started by gathering images of different sized businesses and creating simple vectors of them so that the information was not clouded by the image and its surroundings. Once the vectors were made I used colour to distinguish the different security features created by the businesses, the surroundings, and objects around them.

Wednesday 2 December 2009

After


This is an example of how the business could look if the features were changed slightly.
If the bushes were replaced with a wire frame fence the territoriality of the land is still present and the surveillance of the area is improved because the space is much more visible to the industrial estate. This would improve natural surveillance and should discourage people from trying to enter the premises for fear of being seen. The positioning of some large plant pots at the front of the premises coupled with an easy to maintain grass area where the bushes were act as symbolic barriers, signalling that the space is cared for and worthy of defence.

Before


This image was taken on the same industrial estate. It has been taken from the roundabout, facing my father’s business. The main issue with the image is the obstruction caused by the bushes. These act as a Territoriality feature but also as a symbolic barrier, however they are not cared for enough to validate their presence and their overgrown appearance creates a negative effect. Although they are an excellent territorial feature they act cover which helps people to carry out unnoticed activities.

industrial estate


In this image the territoriality of the image below has been applied to my father’s business and the industrial estate he is located on. The transitions between spaces can be seen clearly and are reinforced by the presence of territorial markers like signs.