Dr. David Coyles, Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Ulster University.
This presentation is relevant to ongoing Assembly deliberations regarding the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill – in particular, the Bill’s Clauses addressing anti-social behaviour, where housing, justice and community safety responsibilities overlap. It highlights how physical environment considerations rarely feature in legislative debate, including debate about the current proposals, even though real-world settings will be the context in which the new powers will operate (such as injunctions or exclusions). To reduce that apparent gap, this presentation offers a scrutiny lens from a physical environment perspective, to highlight how design and organisation of real-world settings shape what people see and how incidents are interpreted by residents, landlords and statutory bodies. Looking beyond legal, administrative and policing perspectives, it aims to broaden discussion about the Bill.
The presentation draws on a decade of peer-reviewed research from Ulster University’s Hidden Barriers programme and work undertaken through the Ministerial Advisory Group for Architecture and the Built Environment (MAG), which have relied on field-based architectural research methods, including site observation, spatial mapping and photographic documentation. It also features comparative insights from research undertaken in Northern Ireland and other divided and post-conflict cities. Relying on that research, it highlights how an understanding the physical setting provides valuable, additional insight when assessing legislative proposals, enabling better understanding of how they would work in practice – for example, the effects of the street and shared space designs on reporting, enforcement, community relations and everyday experience; all contributing factors to how things play out.
Using photographs, maps and spatial diagrams drawn from field research, the presentation describes common spatial features found in many social housing areas where anti-social behaviour is reported or enforced. It explains how those features include complicated layouts, unclear boundaries between public and private space, shared spaces such as alleyways and courtyards and defensive measures such as gates, walls and barriers; affecting visibility, accountability and perception. Moreover, it shows how confusing layouts can obscure responsibility, while poorly defined shared spaces can blur the line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, and defensive design can sometimes increase feelings of safety, while also making a place feel more controlled, surveilled or divided.
This seminar took place on 17 June 2026
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