Against the great divide between theory and practice: gated communities versus urban liveability

摘要

The past few decades, have witnessed a theoretical transformation towards acheiving good urban form, which is mainly directed toward a more livable, sustainable, connected urban form. In practice, a reversed orientation toward gated communities and divided cities is taking place. Enclosed planned unit development (PUD) has been centers of concern for city planning and urban theory since the late nineteenth century. The relation between PUD and its contextual urban fabric is a preventive force toward a livable city form, a major part of the problem was the blurring of clear boundaries between settlements. This paper explores the differences and similarities between the contemporary theory of good community and the recent practice of gated communities in greater cairo region new towns. It also investigates how to develop lessons from history and theory to criticize and underpinning future practice of urban liveabilty in contemporary urban practice of gated communities?. It also explores systematically the ways in which these types of developments are collectively reshaping the public and private realms and accordingly shape the livability of the city at large, and wiith particular reference to the experience of a developing country like Cairo metropolitan area in Egypt.