Why Secure Buildings Matter to Future Smart City Planners

Security Industry Association (SIA)

At ISC East, Doug Haines, MPSE, presented a session for SIA Education@ISC, Why Secure Buildings Matter to Future Smart City Planners. In this blog, he summarizes one of the talking points of his presentation in New York City from November.

By shaping the built environment, smart city planners can create neighborhoods where people want to work, live and raise their families — not because they’re efficient but because they’re safe.

Most of the world is talking about how the capability exists to use the Internet of Things (IoT) in planning the efficiency of modern city infrastructure systems. Secure building design favors the overall aim of the Smart City.

The integration of security system concepts at the on-set in developing inhabited space compliments what public officials and the public want — that is to make neighborhoods safe and secure. Design principles fall into two categories — internal and external. While physically separate, they are not separate in their complementing functions.

By designing built space from the property line inward, we can integrate concepts that allow us the opportunity to deter, delay, detect and defend at every physical layer. Overlapping prevention strategies reduces criminal activity, and its effects can be greatly diminished although it cannot be eliminated.

As the great migration from the countryside to urban centers continues, so will the need to create highly efficient infrastructure systems and usable space that is not only efficient but also effective in its multi-functionality. Stakeholders involved in the building design process must agree on the threats the users of the space will face and design the environment to protect, not only the people using the space, but the facilities themselves and the information therein.

The driving question for those responsible should be, “Would I want my children and grandchildren to live here?”