THE SUMMARY OF SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GATED

COMMUNITIES IN THE GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN

GÁBOR HEGEDŰS1
University of Szeged
Department of Economical and Human Geography

The gated communities are typical communal and architectonical phenomena of our
postmodern, global era. In this social geographic work, we attempt to answer that when and
where gated communities appeared in the Great Hungarian Plain, and what kind of effects,
space-using changes are generated by them. First the main characteristic features of gated
communities are described, followed by the research of the spreading, the effects of spreading
and the caused space-using changes of the gated communities in the Great Hungarian Plain.
According to our research, most problems are triggered by the gated communities built at the
outskirts of settlements.

The main characteristic features of gated communities

Several economic, social, cultural factors contribute to the developing of enclosed, physically
separated intra-settlement resident-sections. The separation of various social, ethnical
communities dates from the antiquity. Since modern times, residential segregation can be
proved not only in the dimension of ethnicity, but also mainly according to the economic-
social status. The private, grouped living form separated from its surroundings still longer
exists; in fact, gated communities (enclave neighbourhoods) seem to be worldwide
phenomena (LUYMES, D. 1997, HOOK, D – VRODLJAK, M. 2002., LEISCH, H. 2002,
ATKINSON,R. – FLINT, J. 2003, WU, F. - WEBBER, K. 2004). In their global spreading many
component play role (besides historical antecedents, economic, land-using and social factors
etc.). Their spreading is significantly influenced by the investing capital companies and
entrepreneurs (with sophisticated methods of stimulating the demand for gated communities)
as well.

Gated communities – according to the field of our research – may be defined in numerous
ways. According to one, gated communities are “residential areas with restricted access in
which normally public spaces are privatized. [Gated communities] are security developments
with designated parameters, usually walls or fences, and controlled entrances that are intended
to prevent penetration by non-residents” (BLAKELY – SYNDER in HOOK, D. – VRODLJAK, M.
2002).

There are many kind of gated community existing in the world and in Hungary (Fig. 1). Most
of Hungarian gated community is not similar to foreign ones - Hungarian ones usually have
not a controlled entrance and they are not fenced. Therefore non-resident people are not so
excluded from them, as in the West. Hungarian gated communities can be divided into the
categories of family house and blocks of freehold flats. The former is formed by individually-
built, various, large (app. at least 150 qms) houses with usually one floor, and situated usually
at the outskirts of the settlements. The latter type is more typical in the inner part of the
settlements (PUSKÁS, H. 2002, KOVÁCS, K. 2006).

1
PhD student, e-mail: [email protected]

1
 Source: LUYMES, D. (1997) Fig. 1. A typology of enclave neighbourhoods
organized around the variables of the level of
access control (gates), and the level of perimeter
impermeability (walls)

Gated communities in the Great Hungarian Plain

Hungarian gated communities first appeared in Budapest, in the end of the 1980’s. At that
time, there were no inland demand for them in Hungary; they were only bought by foreign
diplomats (KOVÁCS, K. 2006). From the 1990’s, they were already built in the agglomeration
of the capital, and in the regional centres of Hungary. We suppose that the spreading of gated
communities in Hungary can be considered as a combined neighbourhood and hierarchical
process of innovations (cf. BOROS, L. – HEGEDŰS, G. – PÁL, V. 2006). Our hypothesis is
supported by the fact, that home-building is greatly affected by the purchase power and
economic situation of the settlement and the local area. The higher the economic-social status
of the local residents is, the more home-building is done. The living conditions are in the
larger settlements the better.

The spatial spreading of gated communities was analyzed by collecting data from Internet.
This source of information is not truly authentic, but we were not able to collect personally
data from all of 62 objects named gated community on the sites. We regard all mentioned
objects as gated community.

2
 Fig. 2. Gated communities in the counties of Great Hungarian Plain

Gated communities tend to concentrate mainly in regional and county centres (Fig.2.).The
greatest number of gated communities is found in Debrecen, which may be explained by its
population number – Debrecen is the most populous city in Great Hungarian Plain. There are
only a few gated communities among county centres in Szolnok and Békéscsaba, according to
the less population number of these two cities.

In some cities, no gated communities are built or planned. Supporting our hypothesis, many
of these cities (e.g. Mátészalka) are situated in less-developed regions. The examined objects
are very rare in towns with less than 10 000 inhabitants, only exceptions are towns having
some tourist attractions or being located in suburban zones of larger cities.

In Csongrád county there are 2,82 (existing or planned) gated communities per 10 000
inhabitants. The investigated objects are spread evenly in the county – in relation to other
counties. In Hajdú-Bihar county the index mentioned above is 2,00. Here gated communities
are much more in the county centre and in the larger settlements concentrated, and there are
not any in the less-developed, southern parts of the county. Bács-Kiskun county can be
described as the mixture type of the previous two counties (index: 1,45). In Jász-Nagykun-
Szolnok county the gated communities are not so intensive in Szolnok concentrated, but there
are not any of them in the Eastern part of the county (index: 1,48). The northern part of Békés
county (index: 1,45) is not affected by gated communities either. There are relatively the less
gated community in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, where the mentioned index is only 1,03,
and large eastern, southern regions are not scattered with gated communities.

3
 The effects caused by gated communities in the Great Hungarian Plain

Gated communities – depending on their type and place of construction – cause both
advantages and disadvantages to their settlement and environment. If a gated community is in
the inner parts of settlements built, then the prestige and the prices of the area increasing. In
the case of brown-field investments (e.g. building up an area of a former factory) gated
communities serves the revitalisation, too. But, of course, there are many disadvantages as
well. Because usually there is not very much available space to build them in the centres of
settlements, investing companies attempt to build any kind of areas (e. g. non-used, former
cemeteries in Szeged). The degree of building up and traffic is increasing in the area, as well
as the former residents have to leave their surroundings (generating gentrification processes).

Constructing gated communities at the outskirts entail many disadvantages. For example, the
natural, extensive land utilization becomes much more intensive and artificial because of the
buildings. Sometimes precious nature reserves are covered with buildings, or endangered
(Fig. 3.).

Source:
Fig. 3. On the left: the effects of building a gated
http://www.innova.eszaka
community in Szolnok (many valuable, anti-allergen
lfold.hu/ (pictures on the
trees of the former pulmonary hospital park were cut
left),
down), on the right: a gated community-like
http://map.terkepcentrum.
development at the northern margin of Nyíregyháza
hu (picture on the right)

Though the investors often proclaim their town- or landscape and environment-protecting
efforts, considering the real effects of building and functioning of gated communities their
intentions seem to be insincere. Many architectonical styles referring to pleasant geographical
environment (e.g. Mediterraneum) are used to increase the popularity of the developments (cf.
HOOK, D – VRODLJAK, M. 2002). In this way, the exterior of gated communities is often very
chaotic, arising differences between them and the historical architectonical character of their
settlement. Their small enclave neighbourhoods inhabited with residents belonging to the
affluent middle or upper classes become wedged frequently in areas which are inhabited with
already long-time there living lower classes. The constructing of both kinds of gated
communities is incidental to privatizing, dispossessing and lessening public urban and rural
spaces. Most of the analyzed objects in the Great Hungarian Plain are not fenced, yet;
nevertheless they often function as a “half-private” (or private) development in whose
playground non-resident children may not play, for instance. The more complete building up

4
of the grounds is, the greater is the profit of investors. Hence grounds of gated communities
are usually very intensively built up. Last, but not least, the resources and good (political and
business) connections of investors help them to hit their own short-term targets - working
against the long-term interests of the entire community of the settlement.

Summary

Gated communities appeared in the second part of the 1990’s in the Great Hungarian Plain, as
results of various economic and social factors. Nowadays there are present in all counties of
the Great Hungarian Plain, and their building is continuing to concentrate in the larger cities.
Most of gated communities are constructed by investing companies and entrepreneurs.
According to our research, most of problems are triggered by the gated communities built at
the outskirts of settlements. Because of the economic and social principles of our times we are
not able to prevent investors building gated communities. But it would be more reasonable to
prefer building in the inner part of the settlements to the outskirts, and the activities of
investing companies and entrepreneurs should be more intensively controlled by the
authorities, (formal) local residents and civil institutions.

Literature

ATKINSON,R. – FLINT, J. (2003): Fortress UK? Gated communities: the spatial revolt of the
elites and time-space trajectories of segregation. Keynote paper, University of Glasgow
[http://www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/cnrpapersword/gated/atkinson.pdf ]
BOROS, L. – HEGEDŰS, G. – PÁL, V. (2006): Globalizációs hatások alföldi városainkban – a
városszerkezet és a településkép átalakulása [Globalization effects in our cities in the Great
Hungarian Plain – the transition of city structure and townscape]. III. Magyar Földrajzi
Konferencia, Budapest, CD-melléklet
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Társadalomföldrajz Tanszék, p. 55.
LEISCH, H. (2002): Gated communities in Indonesia. In: Cities, 19, pp. 341- 350.
LUYMES, D. (1997): The fortification in suburbia: investigating the rise of enclave
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WU, F. - WEBBER, K. (2004): The rise of "foreign gated communities" in Beijing: between
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Fig. 3:
http://www.innova.eszakalfold.hu/digitalcity/entity/entityNews.jsp?dom=AAAAOEOF&egd=
AAAAMFTN&prt=AAAAOEAW&hir=AAAAPCYO (pictures on the left)
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=1&z=18&ll=47.986651,21.730281&spn=0.001731,0
.003659&t=h (picture on the right)
Web-sites mentioned were accessible in September 2006