Paper short abstract:

Taking into account two newly developed gated communities, Coliseum Palace and Renaissance City, this paper shows how the ongoing process of Europeanization in the Moldovan capital actually unfolds in its real estate market.

Paper long abstract:

Like in many other post-communist cities, the urban real estate market in Chişinău is currently undergoing a stark financialisation. The consequent rapid differentiation of housing supply is partly exemplified by the exploitation of a distinctly European symbolism. Thus it has become popular among the Moldovan elite to opt for estates built in such architectural language and literally separate it from the rest of the urban fabric. Similar communities have often been described through the concept of utopia, highlighting the teleological nature of their construction.

Aiming for difference is definitely a core aspect of gated communities, but I argue that the Moldovan examples offer complexities beyond this. Evoking different spatial and/or temporal locations, these developments are heterotopias, (and heterochronias) in the Foucauldian sense. European Renaissance or Ancient Rome are imaginary settings that become blueprints for the present in these locations.

Utopia cannot grasp the messiness of spatial and temporal orientations present in these communities, where the proposed future can easily be someone else's imagined past. One of the most important commodities provided by recent gated communities is precisely their potential to make customers feel in another location as opposed to a vaguely defined paradise. Using the two above mentioned sites I will analyse how developers utilise images of Europe to create such heterotopias.