Is this development, or just vertical isolation?

Photo Source: DailySabah Location: Gurugram

On a recent visit to my city, I was struck by towering high-rises, gleaming, well-lit, and likely worth crores, engulfed by a blanket of thick pollution. They stood tall, yet disconnected from the life below and within. No birds chirped around because the trees were not indigenous; the glamorous landscape simply didn’t care about the life around it. In buildings designed for comfort, people struggle to breathe as particulate matter enters their lungs. Surprisingly, this troubling degradation of spaces is now labeled as “development.”

The love for gated communities among planners, urban designers, developers, and architects has led to further fragmentation of urban spaces and cities. The resulting disconnect and privatization are celebrated, yet they also represent a form of social segregation that separates people by class and background. As Blakely & Snyder (1997) argue, gated communities create a “fortress” mentality by physically isolating residents from broader society, fostering an “us vs. them” mindset and risking deepening social polarization.

What about fostering community connection through the built environment and shared spaces? Atkinson and Blandy (2006) note that gating often involves the privatization of streets and communal areas, limiting civic engagement in shared public spaces and pushing those outside the gates to the margins. When we’re separated by high walls and towering concrete, we are also separated from one another. Affluent groups reside behind private amenities, while the wider population grapples with underfunded or absence of public services.

Planning, at its best, should be about creating environments that bring people together, nurturing expression, emotion, and shared experiences. Yet today, the focus often inclined toward selling vitrified tiles, infinity pools, and smart gadgets, rather than fostering human connections. It’s no longer truly “urban”; instead, it has become an inhuman design whose glorification by marketing agencies and individuals has convinced society it’s desirable.

We have also forgotten that humans are inherently social. In many urban homes, people barely know their neighbors. From workspaces to living spaces, every environment we occupy shapes how we think, feel, and interact. Physical discomfort is easy to notice, but social and psychological disconnection? That’s harder to see, yet just as damaging. Sometimes, we don’t even realize why our stress levels are rising. In reality, gated communities exemplify urban fragmentation and are indicators of declining public health, yet they continue to proliferate in most major cities.

Is it truly sustainable to remain segregated and socially degraded? Are we building cities for people, or just structures for status?

#UrbanDesign #Architecture #Community #MentalHealth #SocialSpaces #CityPlanning #Urbanspaces