ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one aspect of property: owner-occupied homes that are fortified and/or located in gated residential developments. In these distinctive places, housing tenure combines with design, architecture, and planned form to create more defensive and defensible domestic units, within neighbourhood territories that seem to embody cultures of fear. The chapter considers ‘spiky’ and ‘stealthy’ architectural approaches to defending the home, including now commonplace technological protection measures. It analyses a range of potential reasons for an increase in defended homes and neighbourhoods. The chapter explores the interwoven contributions of property law and other social forces in endowing the boundaries of the private home with added power and significance, while acknowledging that in practice boundaries are a complex and contested concept. It suggests that boundaries can be seen and analysed through a directional lens, interpreted as a defensive move into the domestic interior, but also as a means of forming selective social connections.
