ABSTRACT
This book considers the genesis of gated communities in different areas of the world, offering both a historical and contemporary analysis of examples. In doing this, it seeks to respond to and engage with the ongoing debate surrounding the roots of gated communities. There is, at present, no unanimously agreed contemporary definition of what constitutes a gated community; however, the description of what constitutes ‘gating’ throughout urban history is extensive. Atkinson and Blandy (2005, p177), in the special issue on gated communities of Housing Studies, give their definition of the gated community as:
… a housing development that restricts public access, usually through the use of gates, booms, walls and fences … residential areas may also employ security staff or CCTV [closed-circuit television] systems to monitor access … [they may] include a variety of services such as shops or leisure facilities.
These building enclosures are usually governed by legal and social frameworks that form the statutory conditions that residents have to comply with. Blakely (2007, p475) further defines gated communities as:… residential areas with restricted access, such that spaces normally considered public have been privatized. Physical barriers – walled or fenced perimeters – and gated or guarded entrances control access. Gated communities include both new housing developments and older residential areas retrofitted with barricades and fences.
From these two definitions, what is certain is that both the privatization of public space and the fortification of the urban realm, in response to the fear of crime, has contributed significantly to the rise of the contemporary gated community phenomena.
Despite the outpouring of literature and research on the subject, mainly from North America and more recently including authors from Western Europe, since the early 1990s, there is ample evidence to suggest that the phenomenon can also be linked to older historic patterns of enclosure found globally.
Recognition of this other ‘strand’ or notion enclosure, derived from more traditional housing and residence practices in the world, should equally inform the debate about the epistemology and nature of the gating phenomenon. This is important as the incorporation of ‘gated communities’, in one form or another, has influenced and had a bearing on the planning, design ‘codes’ and design guidelines in most contemporary urban areas, at both suburban and inner-city level today.