LabQUS - Laboratorio Qualità Urbana e Sicurezza (“Laboratory for Urban Quality and Security”) came to life at the end of the Nineties out of Clara Cardia’s desire to bring to Italy and Europe the debate on the relationship between the space’s shape and people’s and things’ safety. It was already a lively debate in the United States and Clara, a teacher in the Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano having been a student and the assistant of Oscar Newman, had already been a close-up witness of and taken part in it.

In the architecture classes of Oscar Newman, Jeffrey, Kelling and Wilson CPTED was dealt with for the first time and then all the most recent evolutions in the discipline. For the first time Jane Jacobs’ revolutionary ideas were transformed into practical operations disciplined by scientific rigour. For the first time the concept that form and management of spaces can contribute to the construction of the problem forceful entered into the training of young architects.

With its untiring work LabQUS, led by Clara Cardia and Carlo Bottigelli, soon established itself as an Italian and European point of reference for the processing of theory and practice in urban security.

The Lab made the effort of setting out the pathways for an integrated approach to security policies, overcoming the limits imposed by the traditional methods of action and using space as a tool and container for the construction of security plans.

LabQUS’  work is therefore necessarily carried out both in an educational setting, inside and outside university, and in the fulfilment of projects and consultancies and also in the construction of a unique international network.

In 2015 Clara Cardia unexpectedly passed on in the midst of the process that was going to lead to LabQUS’ coming of age, transforming the Lab into an independent structure at the service of society and the great institutions that work in the area.

With the commitment of Umberto Nicolini and Chiara Simonetti, students of Clara Cardia’s who have been involved in LabQUS since its beginnings, it’s a structure that is now seeking its conclusive positioning.