Mediterranean Style Gated Communities around the World: Architecture, Globalization, and Transnational Elites

Abstract

Mediterranean style houses, mansions, and villas are found in elite enclaves around the world. There is a large literature on gated communities. However, the ubiquity of this Mediterranean style as a global and cross‐cultural phenomenon has been underexamined. Enclaves in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East often look the same suggesting the global commodification of this aesthetic ideal. Examining the Toskana Vadisi, or Tuscan Valley gated community in Istanbul, Turkey, this article argues such spaces represent global cultural processes, as well the habitus of transnational elites in aspiring global cities. Also, by focusing on a non‐Western city, I am able to analyze how aesthetic ideals are linked to city‐building, in an increasingly competitive world, where cities seek world‐class status by developing amenities for transnational elites.

Capitalizing on Heritage: St. Augustine, Florida, and the Landscape of American Racial Ideology

“…After the construction of his hotels was complete, St. Augustine quickly became a summer home to the likes of the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts. In addition to signifying transnational elite leisure and luxury in the past and present (Braden 2017; Fu 2020), Flagler’s resort-hotel architecture served a symbolic function at the time of their construction to reunite Whites after the Civil War and avert the eyes from the violence of white supremacist exploitation (Hillyer 2015). Part of how the City of St. Augustine sweeps the Jim Crow past under the rug of colonial charm is by using the built landscape to signal “Spanish” heritage and thus “colonial charm.” White St. Augustine tourism flourished with the “New South” branding of White reconciliation (rather than reconstruction), accomplished in St. Augustine through capitalization on the European past signified in Flagler’s Mediterranean architecture (Hillyer 2005).…”

Can Buildings be Racist? A Critical Sociology of Architecture and the Built Environment

“…Lopez (2010) has looked at how migrant remittances are used to construct Californiastyle houses in Mexico. This follows a trend where homes and buildings worldwide, especially among elites, look more or less the same (Fu 2020). Therefore, we cannot just reduce its ubiquity to just cultural imperialism.…”