Safetyscape: between landscape and in-scape. Fears and faith in the building of an urban landscape.

Abstract

With the European Convention on landscape a broader interpretation of landscapes has been established, by not only considering the natural or exceptional elements but also the urban ones, on a lower level and having to do with daily life, which deserve at least as much attention as the other elements.  In this essay a number of observations are made on the contemporary urban landscape, generally described as ailing, degraded and a reflection of the woes of contemporary urban life. This study has been carried out with reference to the growing sensation of the lack of safety in public places. To the traditional concept of landscape as “landscape” there is placed the “in-scape” which is an expression of the inner perceptive world, we can now propose a third category , or the safetyscape , an example of the safe landscape which reconciles one’s personal perception of safety with the quality of the surrounding physical space.