Beware the prepackaged solution

As a society, we are addicted to prepackaged solutions.

If you have a problem with youth gangs colonising a street, the prepackaged solution is to move them on, play classical music or install CCTV cameras.

If you want to prevent ram-raiding, the prepackaged solution is to install bollards.

This tendency to jump straight from a perceived problem to an assumed solution may have given the proto-humans an evolutionary advantage — being able to take decisive action in dangerous situations. But the problems I outlined above aren’t life-or-death issues. And in each case, the proposed solution is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the underlying nature of the presenting problem.

Take the issue of youth gangs colonising a street. We assume that the problem is that they have, in an act of aggression, deliberately taken over the space and barred others from using it. The prepackaged solutions are very limited — basically, the idea is to make these unwelcome people move somewhere else. However, dig a little deeper and we find that the underlying problem is not these young people, but the ‘others’ who have abandoned the space, causing the 'ecology of the space' to become unbalanced. This opens up a whole new array of interventions. How do we build a civil relationship with these youth and find a way for them to express their culture so that it enriches everyone’s experience? Treating these young people as the enemy and moving them on is a strategy that is guaranteed to backfire. For starters, where are you going to move them to?

Let me show how prepackaged solutions are killing some of our town centres in Australia. The perceived problem? People with visual impairments need to be able to navigate safely along shopping streets. The prepackaged solution? Prohibit tables, chairs and merchandise being placed against the front windows and walls of shops so that these people can use the shopfronts as a ‘shoreline’ to guide them through the space. Some state governments have even legislated this ‘solution’.

However, in practice, it greatly diminishes the vitality of a town centre if the footpath space outside shopfronts is used in a fragmented way or if retailers are discouraged from engaging with it. Furthermore, the ‘shoreline’ is never continuous and unbroken because there are gaps for doorways, alleyways, etc.

So, let’s dig deeper and redefine the problem as: ‘How can we create a vibrant shopping street for all users, including those with visual disabilities?’ Now a whole new array of potential solutions opens up. One design solution could be to install tactile tiles right down the centre of the pedestrian flow area. This would provide unbroken guidance and lead users to crossing points and even to linger nodes. It would also make creating a permissions statement for store owners very simple: ‘You can put anything you like on the footpath, as long as it doesn’t encroach within 900 mm of either side of the tactile tiles.’

Or think about it this way. Given that placemaking is a collective enterprise (not primarily a design problem), what are some potential social solutions? What if students from a local school, as part of their civics studies, acted as occasional ‘Shopping Companions’ for anyone who needed assistance in getting around the town centre (not just someone with a visual disability)? Imagine how a social arrangement like this could potentially enrich the entire experience for both the children and the people they assist? Imagine how this could create a stronger sense of place and belonging for everyone involved. By comparison, the prepackaged solution of not putting anything against the shop windows is cold and mechanical and contributes to a destruction of a sense of place.

Whatever the prepackaged solution people are advocating, it’s safe to assume it won’t work.

This article is adapted from my book Revitalise Your Town Centre in 7 Weeks or Less. More information here.