Wall: the community within

Abstract

This study appropriates the role of the boundary wall within the framework of the entopian community - the 'realisable' plan for the future. The elemental criteria pertinent to the needs of community residents has been acknowledged and discussed - with particular emphasis on the provision of security, privacy, identity, and a sense of enclosure. It is concluded that the return of the traditionally defensive wall as a bounding element would reassert the negative connotations of historic fortifications, solid enclosure and inevitable segregation. In many cases, such a neurotic form of enclosure would inflate the current predicaments of societal division and rising crime levels. However, the contemporary architectural expressions of walls which succeed in procuring and sustaining a variety of forms and functions, serve to reiterate the current redefinition and reconstitution of this demarcating element. The fundamental criteria for future autonomous neighbourhoods is such an interactive boundary, where the 'edge' promotes social exchange. This definitive edge, where a wall is no longer a wall, must comprise of a public realm which serves to 'fuse' the parts - in an attempt to unite society.