A Comparison of Gated and Non-Gated Home Environments

Abstract

Home, a primary territory allows people to exert control over its space. The home environments dictate behaviors and attitudes of its inhabitants. This dissertation explores the construct of human territoriality in urban residential environments. Two urban lay outs of residential physical environment (gated and non-gated home spaces) were selected to explore the phenomenon of territoriality. The concise understanding of the literature on residential territoriality and researcher‟s initial observation led to the counter-intuitive assumption that gated communities are “territorially rich urban spaces”. Taylor & Brower (1985) theorized the model of near home spaces and said that „Home does not end at front door, but extends beyond‟, they believed that near home territory contains psychological significance. The present dissertation conceptualized gated home space as near home territory and labelled it as territorially rich environment, which will contain psychological significance for its residents and will also facilitates the territorial understanding among its residents. contrary to this, non-gated home spaces by being „territorially lacked environment‟ will differ in terms of psychological significance and territorial sense making. Semi-structured interviews, field observation, interactive participant observation and voluntary photography were the data collection tools. Grounded theory was used to generate theoretical ideas grounded in the data. The findings negate Taylor‟s (1985) assumption that territorial functioning can be explored in micro scale settings and would not be apparent on meso scale. The present dissertation explored residential territoriality on meso scale (neighborhood level: gated and non-gated). The emergent theory states that spatial organization of physical environment can provide physical and functional ease for the occupants, which in turn would lead to psychological ease (place attachment and x belongingness) and spatial fulfillment (trust over the resource capacity of occupied space). Physical ease, functional ease, psychological ease, and territorial fulfilment are four components of residential territoriality identified by the emergent theory. The emerging idea of residential territoriality proposes that the physical built environment of home spaces exists to support not only a household within a residential community, but also its occupants' daily routine. It also provides guidance for measuring the physical characteristics of a home setting that might help residents feel more at home and establish spatial identities. Finally, the territorial notion will differ depending on the physical, social, cultural, and interpersonal/individual contexts.