Street and city

Guard booth

In transformationguardhouse · security booth · sentry box · caseta de guarda (Spanish)

gated community entrancegated neighborhoodoffice buildingparking

A small booth where a guard controls entry to a neighborhood, a building or a street.

Solves

The street feels unsafe

What it solves

It seeks to provide security with a person on watch. Today it is recognized that a street’s safety depends more on light, activity and neighbors than on an isolated booth.

Today

Replace the booth with facades with windows and doors facing the street, shops and mixed uses, good pedestrian lighting and organized neighbors. If control is needed, make it part of an active building and not a booth on the sidewalk.

Common mistake

Closing public streets with a booth and a barrier arm, which cuts up the neighborhood and leaves empty stretches that are less safe.

Tomorrow

Safety can rely on lively streets, good light and neighborhood networks. The booth can be converted into a parcel pickup point, an information point or a bicycle repair stand.

Where it comes from

1European and colonial fortification Europe and San Juan, Puerto Rico, 14th to 18th centuries
The garita was a small turret on the walls for the sentry, like those of the castles of San Juan.
2Modern urbanism United States, 1961 and 1971
Jane Jacobs proposed eyes on the street as natural surveillance, and later crime prevention through environmental design was formulated.

Sources