Courtyard

Last updated
Residenz5, Munchen.jpg
Cour Puget 2, Palais du Louvre, Paris 25 April 2012.jpg
Hotel de Sully, cour interieure.jpg
Arkadenhof der Universitat Wien-1201-Bearbeitet.jpg
Various examples of courtyards

A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky.

Contents

Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary architects as a typical and traditional building feature. [1] Such spaces in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court. Both of the words court and yard derive from the same root, meaning an enclosed space. See yard and garden for the relation of this set of words. In universities courtyards are often known as quadrangles.

Historic use

Courtyard in the Lidzbark Castle, Poland Lidzbark Warminski zamek dziedziniec(WLZ12).jpg
Courtyard in the Lidzbark Castle, Poland

Courtyardsprivate open spaces surrounded by walls or buildingshave been in use in residential architecture for almost as long as people have lived in constructed dwellings. The courtyard house makes its first appearance c.6400–6000 BC (calibrated), in the Neolithic Yarmukian site at Sha'ar HaGolan, in the central Jordan Valley, on the northern bank of the Yarmouk River, giving the site a special significance in architectural history. [2] Courtyards have historically been used for many purposes including cooking, sleeping, working, playing, gardening, and even places to keep animals.

Before courtyards, open fires were kept burning in a central place within a home, with only a small hole in the ceiling overhead to allow smoke to escape. Over time, these small openings were enlarged and eventually led to the development of the centralized open courtyard we know today. Courtyard homes have been designed and built throughout the world with many variations.

Courtyard homes are more prevalent in temperate climates, as an open central court can be an important aid to cooling house in warm weather. [3] However, courtyard houses have been found in harsher climates as well for centuries. The comforts offered by a courtyardair, light, [4] privacy, security, and tranquilityare properties nearly universally desired in human housing. Almost all courtyards use natural elements. [5]

Comparison throughout the world

Courtyard in the Quetzalpapalotl ruin complex at Teotihuacan, 5th century AD. Wiki Loves Pyramids - Teotihuacan - Palace of Quetzalpapalotl - 05.jpg
Courtyard in the Quetzalpapálotl ruin complex at Teotihuacan, 5th century AD.
The Court of the Lions, Alhambra, Granada, Spain Spain Andalusia Granada BW 2015-10-25 17-28-47.jpg
The Court of the Lions, Alhambra, Granada, Spain

Middle East

Courtyards were widely used in the ancient Middle East. [6] Middle Eastern courtyard houses reflect the nomadic influences of the region. Instead of officially designating rooms for cooking, sleeping, etc., these activities were relocated throughout the year as appropriate to accommodate the changes in temperature and the position of the sun. Often the flat rooftops of these structures were used for sleeping in warm weather. In some Islamic cultures, private courtyards provided the only outdoor space for women to relax unobserved. Convective cooling through transition spaces between multiple-courtyard buildings in the Middle East has also been observed. [3] [7]

In c. 2000 BC Ur, two-storey houses were constructed around an open square were built of fired brick. Kitchen, working, and public spaces were located on the ground floor, with private rooms located upstairs. [8]

Europe

The central uncovered area in a Roman domus was referred to as an atrium . Today, we generally use the term courtyard to refer to such an area, reserving the word atrium to describe a glass-covered courtyard. Roman atrium houses were built side by side along the street. They were one-storey homes without windows that took in light from the entrance and from the central atrium. The hearth, which used to inhabit the centre of the home, was relocated, and the Roman atrium most often contained a central pool used to collect rainwater, called an impluvium . These homes frequently incorporated a second open-air area, the garden, which would be surrounded by Greek-style colonnades, forming a peristyle. This created a colonnaded walkway around the perimeter of the courtyard, which influenced monastic structures centuries later.

The medieval European farmhouse embodies what we think of today as one of the most archetypal examples of a courtyard housefour buildings arranged around a square courtyard with a steep roof covered by thatch. The central courtyard was used for working, gathering, and sometimes keeping small livestock. An elevated walkway frequently ran around two or three sides of the courtyards in the houses. Such structures afforded protection, and could even be made defensible.

China

The traditional Chinese courtyard house, (e.g. siheyuan), is an arrangement of several individual houses around a square. Each house belongs to a different family member, and additional houses are created behind this arrangement to accommodate additional family members as needed. The Chinese courtyard is a place of privacy and tranquility, almost always incorporating a garden and water feature. In some cases, houses are constructed with multiple courtyards that increase in privacy as they recede from the street. Strangers would be received in the outermost courtyard, with the innermost ones being reserved for close friends and family members.

In a more contemporary version of the Chinese model, a courtyard can also can be used to separate a home into wings; for example, one wing of the house may be for entertaining/dining, and the other wing may be for sleeping/family/privacy. This is exemplified by the Hooper House in Baltimore, Maryland.

Oak Ridge Apartments in Evanston, Illinois from 1914 Oak Ridge Apartments (7345691882).jpg
Oak Ridge Apartments in Evanston, Illinois from 1914

United States

A courtyard apartment building type appeared in Chicago in the early 1890s and flourished into the 1920s. They are characterized primarily by a low height, a structure along three sides of a rectangular or square lot, and an open court extending perpendicular to the street. The courtyards are generally deeper than they are wide, but many finer ones are wider than they are deep. Influenced by the privacy and domesticity of a standalone house as much as by strict health codes, the architectural style provided outdoor access and ventilation unseen in earlier multi-unit housing in the United States.

Relevance today

Fort Hall replica, the courtyard, Pocatello, Idaho Fort Hall Replica, Courtyard, Pocatello ID.jpeg
Fort Hall replica, the courtyard, Pocatello, Idaho
The courtyard of Kaapelitehdas in Helsinki, Finland Kaapelitehdas inside yard.jpg
The courtyard of Kaapelitehdas in Helsinki, Finland

More and more, architects are investigating ways that courtyards can play a role in the development of today's homes and cities. In densely populated areas, a courtyard in a home can provide privacy for a family, a break from the frantic pace of everyday life, and a safe place for children to play. With space at a premium, architects are experimenting with courtyards as a way to provide outdoor space for small communities of people at a time. A courtyard surrounded by 12 houses, for example, would provide a shared park-like space for those families, who could take pride in ownership of the space. Though this might sound like a modern-day solution to an inner city problem, the grouping of houses around a shared courtyard was common practice among the Incas as far back as the 13th century[ citation needed ].

In San Francisco, the floor plans of "marina style" houses often include a central patio, a miniature version of an open courtyard, sometimes covered with glass or a translucent material. Central patios provide natural light to common areas and space for potted outdoor plants. In Gilgit/Baltistan, Pakistan, courtyards were traditionally used for public gatherings where village related issues were discussed. These were different from jirgahs, which are a tradition of the tribal regions of Pakistan.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hall</span> Large room used for meetings, social affairs or events

In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the great hall was the largest room in castles and large houses, and where the servants usually slept. As more complex house plans developed, the hall remained a large room for dancing and large feasts, often still with servants sleeping there. It was usually immediately inside the main door. In modern British houses, an entrance hall next to the front door remains an indispensable feature, even if it is essentially merely a corridor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peristyle</span> Porch surrounding an inner courtyard

In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön is a rarely used archaic term for this feature. The peristyle in a Greek temple is a peristasis (περίστασις). In the Christian ecclesiastical architecture that developed from the Roman basilica, a courtyard peristyle and its garden came to be known as a cloister.

In architecture, an atrium is a large open-air or skylight-covered space surrounded by a building. Atria were a common feature in Ancient Roman dwellings, providing light and ventilation to the interior. Modern atria, as developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, are often several stories high, with a glazed roof or large windows, and often located immediately beyond a building's main entrance doors.

<i>Domus</i> Roman urban house of upper classes

In ancient Rome, the domus was the type of town house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican and Imperial eras. It was found in almost all the major cities throughout the Roman territories. The modern English word domestic comes from Latin domesticus, which is derived from the word domus. The word dom in modern Slavic languages means "home" and is a cognate of the Latin word, going back to Proto-Indo-European. Along with a domus in the city, many of the richest families of ancient Rome also owned a separate country house known as a villa. Many chose to live primarily, or even exclusively, in their villas; these homes were generally much grander in scale and on larger acres of land due to more space outside the walled and fortified city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ranch-style house</span> American domestic architectural style

Ranch is a domestic architectural style that originated in the United States. The ranch-style house is noted for its long, close-to-the-ground profile, and wide open layout. The style fused modernist ideas and styles with notions of the American Western period of wide open spaces to create a very informal and casual living style. While the original ranch style was informal and basic in design, ranch-style houses built in the United States from around the early 1960s increasingly had more dramatic features such as varying roof lines, cathedral ceilings, sunken living rooms, and extensive landscaping and grounds.

<i>Haveli</i> Traditional house in the Indian subcontinent

A haveli is a traditional townhouse, mansion, manor house, in the Indian subcontinent, usually one with historical and architectural significance, and located in a town or city. The word haveli is derived from Arabic hawali, meaning "partition" or "private space", popularised under the Mughal Empire, and was devoid of any architectural affiliations. Later, the word haveli came to be used as a generic term for various styles of regional mansions, manor houses, townhouse found in the Indian subcontinent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riad (architecture)</span> Type of interior garden or house

A riad or riyad is a type of traditional Moroccan and Andalusi interior garden or courtyard associated with house and palace architecture. Its origin is generally attributed to Persian gardens that spread during the Islamic period. The term is nowadays often used in Morocco to refer to a hotel or guesthouse-style accommodation with shared common areas and private rooms, often within a restored traditional mansion.

<i>Shinden-zukuri</i>

Shinden-zukuri (寝殿造) refers to an architectural style created in the Heian period (794-1185) in Japan and used mainly for palaces and residences of nobles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sahn</span> Islamic architectural feature

A sahn, is a courtyard in Islamic architecture, especially the formal courtyard of a mosque. Most traditional mosques have a large central sahn, which is surrounded by a riwaq or arcade on all sides. In traditional Islamic design, residences and neighborhoods can have private sahn courtyards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sliding glass door</span> Large glass outerwall door

In architecture and construction, a sliding glass door is a type of sliding door made predominantly from glass, that is situated in an external wall to provide egress and light. The doors can give access to a backyard or patio while providing a pleasant view, and when not fully covered can be a source of passive daylighting. Like a window, when open it also provides fresh air and copious natural light. It is considered a single unit consisting of two or more panel sections, some or all being mobile to slide open. Another design, a wall-sized glass pocket door has one or more panels movable and sliding into wall pockets, completely disappearing for a 'wide open' indoor-outdoor room experience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Courtyard house</span> Style of building

A courtyard house is a type of house—often a large house—where the main part of the building is disposed around a central courtyard. Many houses that have courtyards are not courtyard houses of the type covered by this article. For example, large houses often have small courtyards surrounded by service rooms or corridors, but the main rooms are not disposed around a courtyard. Blenheim Palace in England is an example of such a house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Servants' quarters</span> Parts of a building which contain the domestic offices and staff accommodation

Servants' quarters are those parts of a building, traditionally in a private house, which contain the domestic offices and staff accommodation. From the late 17th century until the early 20th century, they were a common feature in many large houses. Sometimes they are an integral part of a smaller house—in the basements and attics, especially in a town house, while in larger houses they are often a purpose-built adjacent wing or block. In architectural descriptions and guidebooks of stately homes, the servants' quarters are frequently overlooked, yet they form an important piece of social history, often as interesting as the principal part of the house itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vestibule (architecture)</span> Small room leading into a larger space

A vestibule is a small room leading into a larger space such as a lobby, entrance hall or passage, for the purpose of waiting, withholding the larger space view, reducing heat loss, providing storage space for outdoor clothing, etc. The term applies to structures in both modern and classical architecture since ancient times. In modern architecture, a vestibule is typically a small room next to the outer door and connecting it with the interior of the building. In ancient Roman architecture, a vestibule was a partially enclosed area between the interior of the house and the street.

Courtyard housing is a distinct medium-density multi-family housing typology centered on a shared outdoor open space or garden and surrounded by one or two stories of apartment units typically only accessed by courtyard from the street. Courtyard housing developed independently in many cultures around the world as a response to particular local needs and economic and social factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wada (house)</span> Type of mansion in Western India

Wada is a type of dwelling found in Maharashtra, western India. Wada is a Marathi word for denoting a large mansion. The term, in all probability, is derived from the Sanskrit word Vata, meaning a plot or a piece of land meant for a house. Over time it came to denote the house built on that plot. Wadi, an extended meaning of wada, denotes a cluster of huts. Typically, wada refers to a house with courtyards found in Maharashtra and surrounding regions in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andalusian patio</span>

Andalusian patios are central open spaces in the courtyard houses of the south of Spain. The stone patios are an architectural evolution of the Roman atrium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porch</span> Room or gallery at the front entrance of a building

A porch is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the façade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule, or a projecting building that houses the entrance door of a building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vernacular residential architecture of Western Sichuan</span>

The vernacular residential architecture of Western Sichuan is one kind of Sichuan vernacular architecture styles in Sichuan, China. Those vernacular residential areas are located with a densely populated plain with rivers in the west of the Longquan Mountains in Sichuan basin and centered on Chengdu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Nigeria</span>

Architecture of Nigeria was historically influenced by environmental conditions as well as social and cultural factors. The coming of missionaries and political changes brought about by colonialism precipitated a change in architectural style and utility of buildings. A Gothic revival style was adopted for early churches built in the colony of Lagos. A one or two-storey timber house building made with pre-fabricated material components and designed with the influence of classic antiquity styles served as mission house for the missionaries. Colonial residents working for the Public Works Department introduced a variant of neoclassical architecture to designs of government buildings and private residencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historic house architecture in Morocco</span>

Traditional houses in Morocco are usually centered around a large internal courtyard, the wast ad-dar, and are characterized by a focus on interior decoration rather than on external appearance. The houses of wealthy residents featured decoration typical of Moroccan architecture and medieval Moorish architecture, including carved and painted wood, carved stucco, and zellij. The center of larger houses could also be occupied by a riad garden, particularly in places like Marrakesh where more space was available.

References

  1. Caves, R. W. (2004). Encyclopedia of the City. Routledge. p. 149.
  2. Garfinkel Y. 1993. "The Yarmukian Culture in Israel". Paléorient, 19.1:115 – 134.
  3. 1 2 Ernest, Raha (2011-12-16). "The role of multiple courtyards in the promotion of convective cooling". eprints.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  4. Reynolds, John S. (2002). Courtyards: Aesthetic, Social, and Thermal Delight. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 26. ISBN   0-471-39884-5. OCLC   46422024.
  5. Reynolds, John S. (2002). Courtyards: Aesthetic, Social, and Thermal Delight. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 27. ISBN   0-471-39884-5. OCLC   46422024.
  6. Reynolds, John S. (2002). Courtyards: Aesthetic, Social, and Thermal Delight. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. IX. ISBN   0-471-39884-5. OCLC   46422024.
  7. Abdulkareem, Haval A. (2016-01-06). "Thermal Comfort through the Microclimates of the Courtyard. A Critical Review of the Middle-eastern Courtyard House as a Climatic Response". Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. Urban Planning and Architectural Design for Sustainable Development (UPADSD). 216: 662–674. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.12.054 . ISSN   1877-0428.
  8. Tim McNeese (1999), History of Civilization - The Ancient World, Lorenz Educational Press, p. 10 ISBN   9780787703875

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Courtyards at Wikimedia Commons