The following is an extract from a novella "Running Wild", (1988) by J.G. Ballard which while it describes an imaginary estate is based to a great extent upon fact. This can be linked to the notes on LA already given to you and reveals :

1. How the environment can be constructed
2. The social divisions the environment can foster
3. Hints as to the effects that extreme environments can cause

Running Wild

Pangbourne Village estate has no connections, social, historical or civic with Pangbourne itself. The chief attraction for Camelot Holdings Ltd, the architects and property developers, was the proximity of the M4 motorway and the ready access it offers to Heathrow Airport and central London, an ease of access that might well have benefited the assassins and kidnappers. All the residents worked either in central London or in the silicon valley of high technology computer firs along the M4 corridor. The Village is the latest and most expensive ( the ten houses, all with swimming pools, projection theatres and optional stables, each sold for approximately £590,000 ) of a number of similar estates in Berkshire which house thousands of senior professionals and their families.

Secure behind their high walls and surveillance cameras these estates constitute a chain of closed communities. They remain completely apart from their local communities, except for a small and carefully selected under-class of chauffeurs, housekeepers and gardeners who maintain the estates in pristine condition. Their children mix only with each other at exclusive fee-paying schools or in the lavishly equipped sports clubs on the estates.

Pangbourne Village is remarkable only for having advanced these trends towards almost total self sufficiency. The entire estate is ringed by a steel mesh fence fitted with electrical alarms and, until the tragic murders, was regularly patrolled by guard dogs and radio-equipped handlers. Entry was by appointment only and the avenues and drives were swept by remote controlled cameras. All police officers concerned on the investigation agree that the penetration of these defences by a large group of assassins was a remarkable and, as yet, inexplicable event.