How Architects and Urban Planners Played a Role In Trayvon Martin's Death

"Walk at Your Own Risk" published in Architect Magazine, is very interesting to me, because I constantly speak about architects and planners developing more than the simple physical environments people attribute to our profession. As a whole, we unintentionally shape the subconsciousness and cultural incubators of the inhibitors of our spaces. I challenge all designers, planners, architects etc to make conscious strides towards considering the social implications of their architectural designs and plans on the intended users.

"Violence occurs in all sorts of places, for many different reasons: prejudice, greed, jealousy, desperation. The Retreat at Twin Lakes didn’t kill Trayvon Martin any more than that 9mm gun killed him—a human being pulled the trigger. But just as there is a relationship between Florida’s gun-control policies and Zimmerman’s legal possession and seeming misuse of a lethal weapon, there is a relationship between the xenophobic planning formula of gated communities and one resident’s deadly reaction to a perceived outsider." - Ned Cramer

See article here.