Types of gated communities

The new gated community In the late 20th century, an ancient urban form began to reappear in modern settlements (Judd, 1995; Morris, 1994). Fortified and enclave developments have become an increas-ingly common feature of contemporary suburban building patterns (Blakely, 1999; Blakely and Snyder, 1997). Older neighbourhoods in some cities are closing off streets to enhance local security and reduce traffic (Blakely and Snyder, 1995; Newman, 1995). In general, postmodern cities are becoming more defended, and more defensible, than were industrial cities (Koskela, 2000). What Ellin (1997) calls an ` ̀ architecture of fear'' is turning the urban environment into an enclosed and privatized realm. Gated devel-opments ` ̀ challenge the spatial, organisational, and institutional order that has shaped modern cities' ' (Webster et al, 2002, page 315). Although most extensively documented in the United States (Blakely and Snyder, 1997), gated communities are appearing in many countries, including Argentin