The Architecture of Fear
I’m neither an architect nor a student of architecture, but it’s interesting how the fears that surround daily life seep into and may dictate the architecture of our homes.
In South Africa, houses are surrounded by high walls, barbed wire, and electrified fences. Most houses have a prominent sign displayed outside advertising the security company that guards the house and provides an armed rapid response if alerted. The house windows are all guarded by heavy steel bars and inside the homes, the sleeping quarters are separated from the rest of the house by a stout steel-barred door that is locked every night before going to sleep. This is all driven by fear. The fear that crime and violence will find their way into your home to steal, rape, and murder while you are sleeping at night.
In the streets of Sderot, the “migunit” or defence shelter for protection of civilians against Qassam rockets from the Gaza Strip.
In Israel, new homes and apartments must, by law, have a safe room. The government has now legislated a new larger size for safe rooms which can include a toilet and kitchen for extended stays. I don’t know how long they think people will need to stay in the safe rooms but they are now being called “an apartment in an apartment”. Apartments with safe rooms are more in demand and command higher prices than similar apartments without a safe room. Similarly, the doors for the safe rooms have undergone a design revision to allow the door to be locked from the inside, which was never needed before October 7, when people took shelter in safe rooms that could not be locked from the inside and so the inhabitants were killed or captured by Hamas terrorists who forced their way in. The design and building of safe rooms is also driven by fear. Fear of attack from armed terrorists and fear of missiles and rockets from external enemies.
The eternal fear cannot be escaped. The need for protection from the threats is ever-present, in front of you on a daily basis to announce, “Here I am, ready to protect you from the threats you perceive.”
But, one cannot escape the fear despite ignoring it, pushing it down into the deep recesses of the mind and living every day as if the threats are not there – the threats are there and the architectural responses to the threats are ever present to prevent you from forgetting the fear.