ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how perceptions of safety are shaped by a broader historical, societal and cultural context and how safety discourses can influence the architecture and urban planning of a city. Using examples of spatial responses to terror threats in Belfast and Oslo, this chapter shows how the prevalence of visible militarised urban security measures has been necessary to establish a sense of security in Belfast, whereas in Oslo the response to the only terrorist attack on Norwegian soil was a method of designing security measures in the existing urban fabric. The approaches of both cities reveal how evoking a sense of safety amongst citizens can be reached by contrasting spatial interventions depending on a country’s cultural perceptions of safety.
