Kruger, a registered architect, has been involved with research and implementation projects related to architecture and settlement making – with a focus on poor communities and vulnerable groups – since he started his career at the CSIR in 1990. His research interest is primarily housing, human settlements and community safety. He has led the sustainable human settlements team since 1999. The team implements a diverse range of research projects related to settlement-making processes and integrated planning and design for sustainable, ecologically sensitive and resource-efficient settlements. These include projects dealing with people-driven housing, municipal infrastructure, appropriate technologies and crime prevention through environmental design.

Kruger has a strong interest in understanding the relationship between crime and the planning, design and management of the physical environment. He was the project manager of the first comprehensive research initiative that addressed crime in terms of its location in South Africa. This project was aimed at supporting the government’s National Crime Prevention Strategy and placed crime prevention through environmental design firmly on the crime reduction agenda in South Africa. Furthermore, it resulted in the establishment of a new research area in the field of crime prevention through planning and design at the CSIR.

Kruger has authored or co-authored a number of publications, including the manual, Designing Safer Spaces. He is a director on the Board of the International CPTED Association and a member of the Springer Crime Science open access journal editorial board.

Expertise: Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED); Crime science; Situational crime prevention; Community-based crime analysis and prevention; Housing and community development; Architecture; Settlement planning, design and management, and appropriate technology in the built environment.