Measuring the urban private-public interface

In contemporary urban policy making, the term "active frontages" of buildings is often used. However, a precise spatial definition in order to measure it is missing. As various studies have shown, the spatial configuration of a city's street and road net affects people's natural movement patterns and the distribution of shops and retail and the geographic and temporal distribution of crime and anti-social behaviour. However, the spatial relationships in these studies are mainly calculated on a macro spatial level. Little research is done so far on the urban micro scale level when it comes to the spatial relationship between buildings and streets. The few conducted studies make it clear that a building's degree of exposure to neighbours plays a role on where burglaries take place. When revealing present design practice, the demand for privacy in combination with a demand for high quality dwellings in urban central areas seems to neglect the spatial possibilities for social interaction with their vicinity on an urban micro scale level. Up until now, spatial tools for measuring the topological relationship between private and public space were missing. In a research project on space and crime, it became inevitable to pay attention to the interdependence between the macro as well as the micro scale spatial conditions. For this purpose, spatial analyses methods were developed and tested in the Dutch towns Alkmaar and Gouda. The application of these analyses tools shows clearly that micro scale spatial relationships have impact on street life and crime distribution in urban areas.