**1. Introduction**

The study of the types and characteristics of Gated communities (GCs) in Ibadan is very significant in housing development. Several problems, as well as advantages regarding GCs have been acknowledged in the literature, these include: reducing crime temporarily or permanently; decreasing the fear of crime or make available psychological respite; which can lead to an improved sense of community; which enhanced a sense of ownership and obligation [1]. The undesirable aspects are: generating a false sense of privacy and safety; relocating crime; segregating

communities; decreasing response times of emergency vehicles; causing tension and conflict between urban residents; enhancing the fear of crime; triggering social segregation; increasing urban separation and fragmentation; causing problems with regards to services and maintenance [2].

A GC is a housing community that has a security gate situated at the front entrance. Occasionally the whole neighbourhood is fenced inside a perimeter of gates. It is a housing development with controlled access and exit [3]. These physical developments, in combination with security guards, substitute the older social control devices, which are centred on social unity within the community concerned. In its current form, a GC is a form of a housing estate or residential community comprising strictly-controlled entries for walkers, bicycles, and cars, and regularly branded and characterised by a closed perimeter of fences and walls [4]. GCs typically consist of minor residential roads and comprise numerous shared facilities. For smaller communities, this might be only a garden or other common area. For larger communities, it might be likely for inhabitants to stay inside the community for most day-to-day doings. GCs are a kind of communal interest development but are different from deliberate communities [5].

Enclosed neighbourhoods denote existing neighbourhoods that ensure controlled access through booms or gates across main roads. Many are enclosed with fence or wall as well, with a limited number of controlled entrances and exits with security guards at each point in some circumstances [6]. In certain cases the streets within these neighbourhoods were before, or still is public assets and in several cases, the local council is still accountable for public amenities to the community within. The roads in these areas are private, and most of the time, the maintenance and management are carried out by a private management organisation [7]. Enclosed neighbourhoods have become an occurrence to be taken earnestly in Nigeria; not only those who desire to live in such development but also those who are concerned with urban management and planning, in addition to the social tendencies that determine human social relations and social dynamics within urban areas in Nigeria [8].

The important issues arising from the study will make known the true image of these gated housing designs in term of their spatial organisation of spaces and level of safety. It will help in making urgent and necessary changes in the current system in prevailing gated communities and also aid in evading these challenges and problems for gated estate developers and government on policies implementation. Combined with an understanding of the characteristics identified, a study of the types of GC in Ibadan can go a long way to assist policymaker and role players, especially local governments, to make more informed decisions. It will be important for future policy decision making in Ibadan to understand the types and characteristics of GCs have on the urban environment and the implications for urban management and maintenance. This study will pave the way for future research in terms of neighbourhood safety development and sustainability of the neighbourhood system. It is now up to policymaker to interpret this information that had been gathered to investigate the local situation.

### **2. Literature review**

The concept of GCs is a fast-growing one especially in response to safety and security all over the country. Equally one can found the road and street closures in major cities of Nigeria. They came up in response to the fear of crime and insecurity within the non-GCs. One of the concerns is the government's inability to protect the property and the life of all its citizens especially in developing countries like Nigeria

### *Typological Analysis of Gated Communities Characteristics in Ibadan, Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97365*

[8]. This necessitated the formation of private alternatives to crime control and prevention. A relatively innovative trend as an architectural conception is that of the GC. The growth and development of GCs in Nigeria is more of a reaction to the high level of fear of crime and insecurity in the nation's city centres. It is common these days to see many important streets close up with gates and booms all in the bid for a secure and safe environment [9]. The need for enhanced property value, privacy, safety and security resulted in an enclosed area, including the need to feel safer. Security, social connectivity and safety are also linked to a greater sense of identity and community, the necessity to bring the entire community together to enhanced common ideals and values [5, 10].

The notion of GC is a complex issue that can be described by sets of cultural, architectural, economic, demographic, societal, political and psychological factors that are unpredictable**.** GCs are defined, according to Low, [11] as a residential neighbourhood with gates and walls enclosing the development, which excludes non-residents access to all inside amenities plus residences, activities and open space. As crime turn out to be more of a threat to that feeling of security, privacy and safety, inhabitants are, in line with Blakely and Snyder, [12] turning to high walls and gates enclosing residential areas, thereby privatising and segregating parts of the urban area. The growth of safety enclaves is a global phenomenon [13].

Landman, [14] described a GC as a physical area that is fenced or walled off from its environments, elimination or controlling entrance to these areas employing booms or gates. In numerous cases, the concept can refer to as a residential area with controlled access, so that common public spaces have their uses restricted and privatised (García de Alba, [15]). In the area were the crime rates is high, enclosed neighbourhoods are perceived by many as the only alternative for crime deterrence [7]. It takes place in many forms in a large number of countries. Within a short period, GCs have rapidly increased in Nigeria. This has been the case for several different types of GC. Even though the major evolution of enclosed neighbourhoods has happened in city areas, especially in Oshogbo, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Ibadan among others, the occurrence has not been restricted to these cities. Several applications for neighbourhood enclosures have also been received in municipalities [5]. In the context of high crime rates, many people consider security villages or enclosed neighbourhoods the only choice for safety living in metropolises. Nevertheless, not all people come to an understanding that this is the best or only solution to crime prevention in the country [9].

The major motivating and determining factors behind enclosure and gating, according to Low [11], are fear of crime, property values, and nice environments, the search for safety, privacy, security, prestige, lifestyle, control, exclusivity and community attachment as driving factors to GC developments. Residing in segregated housing spaces in the city is a multifaceted social process that is not only the consequence of the fear of crime also is a way to relocate from urban disorder, to establish seclusion of social homogeneity and to establish new forms of local government [12].

Grant and Mittelsteadt, [16] acknowledged eight factors that distinguish GCs from their neighbourhood to include safety features and barriers, functions of the enclosure, facilities and amenities included, tenure, type of residents, location, policy context and size. Several authors agreed that gated developments reveal a rising trend to private governance and private communities [17]. GCs are believed to have characteristics of social interaction, safety, good life, privacy, freedom from maintenance, exclusivity and homogeneity [18]. Residents choose to move into CGs for reasons such as increased privacy and safety, traffic and noise reduction, yard maintenance and aesthetics, prestige, exclusivity, control, and the increase in property values. By their implication, GCs isolated residents from the larger urban

environment [14]. Planners encourage GCs because they lack mixed uses, diversity, connected street systems and public open space. Planners can make alternatives against the appeal of GCs development by providing local community meeting places and better public safety [19].

GCs, which are dispersed all around the world, vary from country to country, with reverence to their characteristics and in specific to different motives for development viz. safety, privacy, security, prestige and ethnicity [20]. These GCs are way out for everyday problems of ethnic conflicts and high crime rate. They intensely restructured the urban forms of many cities. GCs signify the hope of privacy, safety, offer an important position to marketing strategy for developers in a competitive environment, attractive to consumers looking for identity and a sense of community, increase property values and exclude none resident, from attractive amenities (Blakely and Snyder 1998; [21]).

According to Górczyńska [22] there exist various classifications of GCs that relate to their organisational, functional, and morphological parameters. The classification explained by Blakely and Snyder, (1998) presents three key types of GCs to inhabitants' motivations and characteristics: GCs is inhabited by those searching for safety and by people with the same lifestyles and by elites. From this study, the typologies of GCs vary slightly from those offered for Western countries. Brabec and Sýkora [23] have categorised three main categories of GCs: (1) guarded, (2) guarded and walled, and (3) walled communities that relate to the level of luxury of each type of community and the first type are the most luxurious. Another classification identified by Hegedűs, [24] was established on the supplementary functions of GCs (facilities for inhabitants such as swimming pools and playgrounds) and the existence of particular fences and gates. With these features, three types of GCs were identified: (1) GCs with incomplete functions (2) GCs with complete functions, and (3) lacking any physical separation but delivering amenities.

The prevailing typologies of gated neighbourhoods are mostly grounded on the morphological features of estates [25, 26] or the types of protection used [27]. In line with Glasze [25], there exist two main types of GCs: condominiums (usually luxurious buildings in the central districts) and gated estates composed of multifamily houses, single-family houses and terraced houses [25]. Hence, this type agrees to the elite type identified by Blakely and Snyder (1998). Regarding gated estates composed of numerous buildings, their diversity in terms of standard, size, and quality is tremendously large, and their inhabitants signify both middle and upper classes [22].

A more multifaceted typology of gated estates was suggested by Chabowski [28], who concentrated on eight features: (1) the period of construction, (2) the extent of closed space, (3) the scale of closure, (4) the number of storeys, (5) the period of closure, (6) characteristics of surrounding areas, (7) architectural types and (8) quality and price of dwellings. This typology matches up to the great diversity of GCs. Within those categories of functions and other factors the typology add considerations of the character of facilities and amenities, spatial patterns, level of affluent and the type of security features. Each of these physical characteristics relates to a single function. For example, Blakely and Snyder, [12] discuss the level of affluence as the main factor in prestige communities but give it lesser important in lifestyle and security zone communities. Aulia and Suryani, (2020) identified the typology of gated housing based on the development and growth in the city of Medan which were classified into three sets, specifically large-scale gated housing, medium-scale gated housing and small-scale gated housing. Given the limited study on typological analysis of GCs and little attention been paid to the defensive physical characteristics in the context of gated communities holistically in a developing country like Nigeria; hence, the need to exploit and look critically at

these issues in Ibadan. This study attempted to fill the gap with a particular interest in a quantitative study which is relevant and important in housing.
