COURTYARD AND SPACES

In CONTEMPORARY BUILDINGS

INDEX

SR.NO. TOPIC SIGN

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INTRODUCTION
2
HISTORY OF COURTYARDS
3.
CONTEMPORARY COURTYARDS
4.
TYPES OF COURTYARD
5.
USE & FUNCTIONS
6.
CLIMATE & COURTYARD
7.

Introduction
A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space
enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas
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

Historic use

Courtyardsprivate open spaces surrounded by walls or buildings

have been in use in residential architecture for almost as long as

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 people have lived in constructed dwellings. The courtyard house
makes its first appearance ca. 64006000 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.
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. However, courtyard houses have been found in harsher
climates as well for centuries. The comforts offered by a courtyard
air, light, privacy, security, and tranquilityare properties nearly
universally desired in human housing.

Comparison throughout the world

UR
2000 BC two-storey houses 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.
ROME
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 center 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.

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 The Middle East
Courtyard houses in the Middle East 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.
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.
Hooper House: 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.
Europe
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.
United States
In the first half of the 20th century, a trend developed in Los
Angeles around Courtyard houses. Designers such as the Davis
family and the Zwebell family developed houses that only visually
appeared to mimic Mediterranean architecture, but using very
carefully planned courtyards managed to create both a sense of
community, safety and scale. Using various levels of private/public
gradations these courtyard houses were so successful that they

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 have been copied throughout the western coast of the United
States.
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.
Pakistan
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.

A ventilated courtyard as a passive cooling strategy in the

warm humid tropics
The inclusion of an internal courtyard in building design is attributed
to the optimization of natural ventilation in order to minimize indoor
overheating conditions. However, the efficiency of this strategy
greatly depends on the design details of the building composition in
providing appropriate airflow pattern to the courtyard. From the
results of thermal measurements, a significant correlation between
wall surface temperatures and indoor air temperatures is evident. A
reduction of indoor air temperature below the levels of ambient is
seen as a function of heat exchange between the indoor air and
high thermal mass of the building fabric. However, this behavior is
affected by indoor airflow patterns, which are controlled through the
composition between envelope openings and the courtyard of the
building.
From a computational analysis, several airflow patterns are
identified. A relatively better indoor thermal modification is seen
when the courtyard acts as an air funnel discharging indoor air into
the sky, than the courtyard acts as a suction zone inducing air from
its sky opening. The earlier pattern is promoted when the courtyard
is ventilated through openings found in the building envelope. The
computational simulation utilizing the standard k- turbulent model
with isothermal condition agrees closely with the measurements
taken from the field investigation.

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 Relevance today
Courtyard houses made a lot of sense. The residents got outdoor
space that was secure and usable at all times of day; nobody had to
lock a window or door that opened into the central area. It provided
lots of natural ventilation. The roofs were often used for rainwater
collection. They have kept people appropriately warm and cool
without high technology- for 4,500 years.
Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, they are all the rage
again, for many of the same reasons that the Romans loved them
2000 years ago.

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