Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

Cities are historically initiated with the idea to provide protection and have adapted many planning approaches to be more safe and secure even from internal violence. The fortification walls were one of these initial solutions that was adapted many times in modern history like in Berlin after the Second World War. After the collapse of the security situation in Baghdad during the war, the idea of urban public space had a dramatic change in shape, accessibility, and functions because of the concrete barriers which worked as cordon around parcels, blocks, and sometimes the whole district to save people against terrorism attacks associated with the appearance of some negative urban phenomena which enhanced the violence like urban decay and informal settlements. The connectivity between urban structural elements were affected significantly and urban segregation was the result. This paper investigates the impacts of those new protection elements (concrete cordons) on the spatial concept of public space. It will explain the procedure of composing the secure zones within the arrangement of urban spaces components. An elaboration of user behavior to adapt to the change in spaces’ configurations will be illustrated, such as the process of space privatization by shifting from public spaces to gated communities like city malls. As Newman believes that violence control could be achieved by resetting the physical layout, this paper will work to find the possibilities to restructure the physical environment and rearrange the space hierarchy to have better defensible spaces which allow communities to control their safety. The negative and positive impacts of the concrete barriers will be shown in this paper finding ways to reshape urban space after the improvement of security conditions and reusing the concrete barriers in urban design and architecture as a recycled elements. Some recommendation of space design will be more beneficial to enhance the public security for the inhabitants.