Concepts of Physical Design and Crime: A Preliminary Study into Exploration of Factors Influencing Building Security Cost

Abstract

The escalation in criminal activities within and at victim’s residences has forced residents to seek greater security of life and property; this necessarily involves increased expenditure of the building project. This study involves a preliminary review of security measures applicable to crime against life and property. Therefore, three important concepts of security were linked to physical design of buildings. The concepts includes: defensible space, crime prevention through environmental design, and situational crime prevention. These concepts will provide information necessary to support this research and further gives directions into the exploration of cost-influencing factors of building security. In order to achieve the set objective, mixed methods sequential exploratory research approach will be employed with the use of phenomenological design for qualitative phase and descriptive statistics analysis for quantitative phase. Hence, this study will help in establishing a framework of factors influencing building security cost within the built environment, which could serve as useful tools for measuring building security cost in urban environment.