RELEVANCE OF COURTYARD IN CONTEMPORARY

EDUCATIONAL BUILDINGS

INTRODUCTION:

Courtyard:

Courtyards are private open spaces surrounded by walls or any defining element
have been in use in buildings for almost as long as people started living in
constructed dwellings.

“An unroofed area that completely or partially enclosed by walls or

buildings” - (Book :Reynolds, J. (2002). Courtyards: aesthetic, social, and thermal
delight: Wiley)

Courtyard are more prevalent in temperate climates, as an open central court can
be an important aid to cooling the building in warm weather. However,
courtyard structure has been found in harsher climates as well for centuries. The
comforts offered by a courtyard—air, light, privacy are properties nearly
universally accepted.

Aim:

To understand importance of courtyard and establish a parameter for

courtyard which is appropriate to educational building.

Objectives:

1. To study the history and evolution of courtyards.

2. To understand the ideal proportion as relate to function.
3. Compare and analyse the micro climate condition of education space
with courtyard and without courtyard.
4. To calculate the performance evalution of courtyard through digital
tools.
 - Light
- Ventilation

Research question:

Are courtyards still relevant in solving its function?

Sub questions:

1. How the courtyard enhances the quality of space?

2. Are the courtyards efficient in today’s context?
3. How to derive appropriate proportion of courtyard in educational
building?
Scope:
To study, understand and analyse the nature, size, scale shape of courtyard
from literature study and to do comparative analysis of the present courtyard
through case studies with help of digital tool and frame guidelines and
parameters of an appropriate courtyard in terms of size, proportion and uses.

Limitation:
Study will focus on relevance of courtyard in educational buildings of Tamil
nadu.

Reason for Educational Building:

A considerable period of life is spent mostly in education building, thus the
education environment designed with courtyards for better ventilation would be
an ideal solution.
“We learn from where we learn”
Reference:
1. Fatma Abass, Lokman Hakim Ismail and Mohmed Solla .,“A REVIEW
OF COURTYARD HOUSE: HISTORY EVOLUTION FORMS,AND
FUNCTIONS ” ; ISSN 1819-6608 VOL. 11, NO. 4, FEBRUARY 2016
2. Gaurav Gangwar, “Environmental, Behavioural and Aesthetic aspects
of Courtyard Design” ; Vol-2, Issue-9, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362
3. Paria saadatjoo, Mohammadjavad Mahdavinejad, Shiva najaf khosravi,
Nader kaveh,. “EFFECT OF COURTYARD PROPORTION ON
NATURAL VENTILATION EFFICIENCY” ISSN: 2394-2827 Volume-
3, Issue-5, Oct.-2016
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Air conditioning and the low carbon cooling challenge”, Network for
Comfort and Energy Use in Buildings (NCEUB): Cumberland Lodge,
Windsor, UK (2008).
5. Brown G.Z, Dekay M, “Sun, wind and light:Architectural design
strategies”, 2nd ed. New York: Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Inc
(2001).
6. Sustainable by passive architecture, using courtyards in non-domestic
buildings Conference Article: The 2005 World Sustainable Building
Conference, Tokyo, 27-29 September 2005 (SB05Tokyo)
7. Geometry of building’s courtyards to favor natural ventilation:
comparison between wind tunnel experiment and numerical simulation
Conference Article: The 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference,
Tokyo, 27-29 September 2005 (SB05Tokyo)
8. B. Vedhajanani* and A. Lilly Rose“Contextual Comparison of Courtyard
Houses in Tamil Nadu” Vol 9(5), DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i5/87268,
February 2016