Perceptions of Safety – pilot project

Another approach for improving safety for women and girls.

The project is an extension of XYX’s aim to make the city safer for women and girls to enable them to take full advantage of the social, cultural and economic opportunities of the city.

Associate Professor Nicole Kalms

Safety for women in public spaces is complex as women experience public places differently to men, mainly because of gender-based violence and the gender-biased built environment. Public spaces are often created and designed for a generic, allegedly non-gendered user. But given the prevalence of gender bias, a non-gendered user is a default male user. The XYX Lab leads in research and emerging methodologies to create safer cities.

The Perceptions of Safety pilot project is an innovative post-occupancy evaluation of the station and public realms of Ginifer and St Albans Stations. It looks to develop an after-the-design process to aid designers in future designs. Drawing on XYX Lab’s expertise in gender-sensitive design for safety, the project assesses the stations for how well they aid perceptions of safety for the women and girls who use them. While the project will look at standard CPTED-type elements, it will also review the key gender-sensitive elements that have been developed in other XYX projects.