Urban planners and architects have incorporated visible protective barriers into their designs that recall moats and city walls from the past. Several high-tech contemporary solutions to protect buildings, however, have been rendered invisible to the average person. To protect against car bombs, for instance, excavated ditches ensure the collapse of sidewalks under the unusual weight, and trap the car at a safe distance from the buildings.

Designers have sometimes tried to disguise protection under a decorative veil; beautiful, complex facades meant to deflect and dissipate the impact of a bomb on a building; iron fences topped by cute bunny rabbits; elegant bar chairs modified to accommodate hooks for purses, to protect against their theft; delicate rings that become brass knuckles for self-defense; bedside tables that can be turned into baseball bats and shields. Humor and delight are often used as a way to exorcise the tension.

While the need to protect our belongings is as old as civilization, the idea of identity theft is more recent. Kings and popes once attested their identities with seal rings, while ordinary people presented passe-partouts, identity cards, or passports that were relatively hard to counterfeit. Today, identity theft has become rampant, as we entrust our identity to passwords and to the goodwill of impersonal data banks. Almost as a consequence comes the need to protect and reaffirm one's identity and beliefs -- whether by wearing a personalized necklace, acquiring a tattoo, or signing a living will. Making sure one's personality cannot be sidelined or overstepped has become a strong urge that has precipitated many a design solution.

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Safeguarding property -- from buildings to purses -- is an inherent human need. A few objects in this section are: