Counterterrorism Competition Blasted

Via Building Design:

Gough asks students to boycott contest that ‘propogates paranoia’

The organisers of a student competition to design out terrorism have been accused of contributing to a “culture of fear”.

The Public Spaces, Safer Places: Designing in Counter Terrorism contest asks students to imagine a “likely attack scenario” in the form of a massive suicide bombing in a fictional public space with the same dimensions as London’s Trafalgar Square.

The brief for the competition, organised by the Royal Society of Arts, with the RIBA, the Home Office and the National Counterterrorism Security Office, is to redesign this area after 500 civilians have been killed, with a further 1,500 injured.

Piers Gough
Photo: Building Design

Piers Gough called for students to boycott the competition, describing it as the “propagation of paranoia”.

“The government gets blamed [for not doing enough] if there is an attack,” he said.

“They like to pass on the agony to us by curtailing our freedom. On no account should architects or students give succour to this.

“The percentage threat from terrorism is miniscule compared to others such as road accidents.

“Just when we have reached a consensus that traffic engineers’ paranoia has ruined our streets and spaces with a plethora of guard rails, central reservations and insane quantities of signage… along comes terrorism paranoia to scare us into accepting more fortification of our cities.”

Gough’s criticism was backed by the heads of the architecture schools at Westminster University and Glasgow School of Art, and by Alastair Donald, urban designer and researcher at the Martin Centre for Architectural & Urban Studies at Cambridge.

Continue to read the full article at Building Design.