Architectural Approaches to Crime Prevention in Open Residential Complexes at Residential Unit Level

The majority of studies in the field of situational crime prevention have addressed general concepts, regardless of the specialty related to space design. The present study seeks to explore and develop architectural solutions for crime prevention at the residential unit level, taking into account the different levels of residential space.

In terms of its purpose this research is of an applied study, and in terms of methodology, it is a survey study. The statistical population of this research includes all residents of Rasht's residential complexes. Among them, three residential complexes were selected using purposive sampling method, namely "Rasht Mehr Housing ", "Basijian Talesh Housing" and "Rasht Orkid Golsar Housing". By distributing 1000 valid and reliable questionnaires (0.80), among the residents, 259 questionnaires were collected and data were analyzed using SPSS software.

The findings of the research indicate that the preventive measures of design to reduce the occurrence of crime at the residential unit level are more meaningful based on the principle of access control, therefore architectural solutions of crime prevention at the residential unit level are designed in order to prevent the intrusion of the delinquent through strengthening the access areas of the unit (such as balconies, windows, inlets, etc.). It should be noted that the solutions derived from other principles of crime prevention through architecture are less successful for various reasons, such as the residents' reluctance to see the space inside the residential unit (the principle of natural surveillance), the impossibility of increasing the territoriality of the inhabitants of the unit through design due to lack of general arena (territory) and the conflict with the confidentiality of the spaces within the unit (the principle of audibility).