The impact of morphology on neighbourhood phenomenon: A comparative analysis of a traditional neighborhood and a gated community

The human is an entity attempting to find a place for himself in the city space based on what is perceived. No matter where people live, they build relationships by interacting with their environment. These relationships are defined by neighborhood bonds inside the physical boundaries of the area, and neighborhood consciousness evolves through time. However today it is apparent that these relationships have been broken in most settlements. When the disintegration have been analyzed, it is noticeable that it advances in parallel with the change in the physical texture of the neighborhood morphology. This raises the question, "What are the components that make a neighborhood a neighborhood?" From past to present, there have been changes in the urban space which also been examined with urban morphology studies. Today, it is feasible to state that there are communities that attempt to preserve their original texture, as well as neighborhoods that may be characterized as gated settlements which were designed with the intention of excluding others. These have a detrimental impact on the morphology of the city with the islands they produce and causes a man-made disaster in the city which damages social relations by human hand. At the same time, it causes a question of the phenomenon of "neighborhood" and "neighborliness". The physical and social differences between the gated community model and the traditional neighborhood have been examined in this study with the analytical framework developed after determining the major criterias which have been defined as safety, sense of belonging and walkability for neighborhood formation and the distinctions between two models have been revealed. Afyon-Bucak Neighborhood has been chosen as a case study for a traditional neighborhood, whereas Ankara-Serhat Neighborhood has been chosen as an example of a contemporary gated community. Keywords: Neighborhood, Gated community, Safety, Sense of belonging, Walkability