Céline Loudier-Malgouyres The severance of residential enclaves from their immediate environment A morphological approach to the development of residential enclaves in France At a time when gated communities are emerging into the debate on towns and cities, this article looks at the question of residential enclaves of individual homes (before becoming gated, a development is generally an enclave) as a form of urban development and method of extending the periurban fabric, the individualism of which they are supposed to symbolise in contrast to the idea of integration. An analysis of their spatial and morphological characteristics gives the first clear idea of how they work and how they relate to their immediate environment, showing that phy...