Gated Communities are a localized and decentralized response to the security issue, real or imagined, that civil and social order is failing and that the state does not have sufficient reach or budget to protect life, limb and property uniformly.

They were decried to an extent as the rich locking themselves away, and in truth it was probably not necessary in countries with functioning governments such as the US or Australia; however in places like Brazil where economic inequality is much more violent, it probably was an essential entrepreneurial response to a weak state.

Ecocuidad, MVRDV + GRAS

I don't see how the eco-green utopias like the Logrono Montecorvo Eco City project are any different to the principles of the gated communities. This is a localized and decentralized response by entrepreneurs, the state and designers to the issue of energy security.

It may be cooler to have a carbon neutral urban node, it may be more ethical to live in a green community; but it is a mechanism to 'design out' through energy isolation; the arbitrary, volatile and potentially destructive possibilities of catastrophic energy failure.

I consider both, gated communities and energy communities, as perfectly valid lifestyle and economic choices. It is an interesting organizational pattern.
Cam Riley: South Sea Republic. Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic.

Comments
  • Jan Knikker . # . 1/1
    Meanwhile this Eco City in Logrono is a social housing project which will reduce the carbon footprint of the new plan. Maybe the analogy is not as obvious as you might think.

    • cam . # .
      I am not certain social virtue is really part of the wider organizational pattern.

      I think the similarity is that they are both responses to a security issue and have sought to dampen the voltility/arbitrary nature of the issue with a gated/walled/isolated response.

      I think it is a perfectly valid response. It probably means there is greater resilience in the wider system because it augments rather than replaces.
      'Sworn to no party, and of no sect am I.' Frederick Vosper's republican motto.