INTERIOR COURTYARDS IN URBAN LANDSCAPES

“Yet, the courtyard is more than just an architectural device for obtaining
privacy and protection. It is, like the dome, part of a microcosm that parallels
the order of the universe itself.”
Hassan Fathy

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
The base of the concept of sustainable development rooted in promoting sustainable
use of natural resources and nature as the base of social activities. In terms of architecture,
sustainable development relates to traditional methods of construction with traditional
materials after the traditional forms that preserve and save natural resources.
In a world dominated by the concept of globalization, the increasing decay of the
environment at a global level generated a unanimous effort to finding a way of supporting
the human existence in perfect balance with the surrounding nature. Today, our visions of
the world are related to the concept of cohabitation with and respect for the environment, a
vision translated through the evolution of our ideas towards sustainable projection, ecologic
planning, bionic and bioclimatic architecture, all ideas which have begun influencing the
practice of architecture at the beginning of 21st century. Surprisingly, however, rapid
urbanization created a mutation in the interest for traditional models which value
experience and intelligence gained over centuries in vernacular architecture (as architecture
that preserves methods and materials empirically known, but also as architecture holding
the history of societal memory). Within this context, the present paper aims at regaining
some traditional values which are at the borderline between the public and private space.
This is the microcosm of transition spaces, of interior courtyards, alleyways, passages – a
world of forms, games of shadow and reflex, light and dark, hidden by façades more often
than not opaque.

Several studies in the past years define the courtyard housing typology as one of the
variants which adapts the definition of sustainable development including an important part
of urban landscape.

Anticipating this direction, for the exhibition "This is Tomorrow" at the Whitechapel
Art Gallery in 1956, the architects Alison and Peter Smithson (pivot generation of modernist
architects with Le Courbusier, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe) created an installation
called "Patio & Pavilion" by wich they claimed: "(...) the basic requirements of human
habitat. The first requirement is a small part of the world: the patio (inner courtyard). The
second requirement is an enclosed space: the pavilion"1. With this statement, the two
architects have pointed the importance of courtyards in modern architecture and created a
manifesto promoting the use of elements of traditional values in the new architecture.

The present thesis actuates the interest on a certain type of community life, which is
characteristic to the historical center of Bucharest, through the interaction of private and
public spaces, and distinguishes some aspects linked to a possible traditional urban, social
and architectural rehabilitation.
The chosen frame area, without encompassing extraordinary works, is in itself a
treasure: through its unity, volumetric relations, through the way it is illuminated, the way
the open spaces and the constructed elements join, through the unique ensemble
composed and the last but not the least through its reference points created in the
memories of the residents (definition and identification – the daily living space). Identity is
defined, as per the dictionary, as being a bundle of data, with which a person can relate to,
the one that makes him unique and distinguishes him from everyone else. When we refer to
architectural identity, we think about the constructive elements which belong to our
traditional way of inhabitancy, the architectural traits that define us.
Even though it’s original destination is obsolete, and specific function is
consummated, the buildings and historical quarter can be adapted to a contemporary life
style. This can be achieved through the restoration of their natural and constructive
ambient, as a historical attestation, which contains a particular value of the traditional
urban civilization.

The congeniality of the historical center resides in all of its constructions, from the
modest to the more prestigious ones, without ignoring the open spaces and urban
composition rules – all those material and immaterial elements which are defining for its
unique character.
Tied with the main street through alleyways, interior courtyards are the first step
towards the dwellings’ intimacy and private space. Through these, the daily commotion is
depressurized, and the intimate space of the interior may be entered, thus gradually
succeeding the pass from exterior to interior, from the “public” to the “private”.
 Moreover, the transition spaces are gaps, negatives of the built background, offering
a contextual continuity between the interiorized traditional social structures, the
contemporary way of living and the city. Therefore, the interest is focused on discovering
the signification and the present values within an urban tissue inherited a priori, where the
interior courtyard and the transition spaces persist still despite the social changes and the
demands of the new ways of living, thus becoming intrinsic characteristics of the urban
tissue.

Without becoming an element permanently characteristic of the function, the

interior courtyard was also used in buildings such as libraries, schools, universities,
museums, offices etc. where it had various roles: of circulation, relaxation, climatic
moderator, assuring an intimate space etc.
 Extremely important is the use of typologies with interior courtyard within the cities’
boundaries, a generic type of urban planning which offers the possibility for a dense
urbanisation and a maximal use of the field.

We may thus conclude that the same systematic exploration of geometrical

proprieties of the closed spaces outside, an exploration which leads to interesting
combinations of planimetries which emphasize the ability of parts to intersect with one
another, create sustainably coherent units which are independent of the building’s or
architectural complex’s function. The interior courtyard and its generic symbols, functional
virtues, structural components and remarkable typologies render the space positive, and
create typologies compatible with the current needs.
 The case studies, examples which we have considered important for the studied
topic, show the important features of these spaces and these are the base to extract some
conclusions related to the possibility of restoration, conservation and valorisation. The
chosen spaces are special, most of the times they are associated to a building that is
historical monument or which has a high environmental value. Also, it’s interesting to find
out which functions, that are compatible with the general character of the area, may be
allocated to these spaces in order not to turn them into museum, but rather to integrate
them in an economic, touristic and social circuit.
 Marking the great circulation networks of 19th century and of the beginning of 20th
century meant ending the partitioning of the already-built setting. Thus, there is a new
typology of residential building, which had to answer to a double demand: fully use the field,
but also offer sufficient air and light. The interior courtyard will represent the solution which
will correspond to the requested model.
The proposed intervention chosen for this presentation are some that facilitate the
retention of valuable architectural items and coagulated urban formation in its full harmony
and utility.

CONCLUSIONS
There is a method of revitalizing and giving value to these spaces, a method which
considers:
- Preserving the identity of the place, through history, and adapting it to the ever-
changing human needs
 - Respecting the spirit of the place by determining the local parameters which
confer identity, and interpreting them in a manner that is adapted to the new
demands and needs
- The genius loci must be protected and preserved as essence, and it must be
formally blocked in a precise historical time.
We all relate to tradition as something which was left to us by our predecessors and
has become past. Why should we then study this past? Societies change in time, and when
we plan something today we use the principles of the past. This is because the past has a
timeless character given by its virtues and significations.

By truly understanding spatial methods, Romanian contemporaneity may understand

the importance of urban regeneration of these spaces from the historical centre, and the
sustainable way of living put into value by this typology. Unlike other countries with a rich
experience in preserving and giving value to interior courtyards, Bucharest turned its back
on these components of its traditional urban tissue, until now. A campaign of promoting
these solutions of architecture inspired and viable for re-inhabiting these spaces can begin
through materialisation of a cultural project dedicated to this topic.
This is why we consider that the study is necessary for giving value to these spaces
and, thus, revitalizing historical centres throughout Romania, but also to show a sustainable
typology within the framework of sustainable development.

Within the context of sustainability and going back to the vernacular, finding viable
solutions, not only for preserving the existing heritage but also to develop complex systems
which consider the present climate, may generate a methodological and conceptual
instrument based on the relationship between landscape, dwelling and climate. Exploring
the typology of habitation with interior courtyard will allow to find generally-applicable rules
with the view to save the energy necessary to heating or cooling, and applicable to the
climatic conditions of our country.
 Using the interior courtyard as a house-integrated element is a form of embracing
and co-working with nature with the aim to use the ecologic design which satisfies the needs
without including non-renewable resources. As a passive system of cooling or heating up
and protecting against winds, the interior courtyard may control the temperature of the
house with the minimum use of energy. Leaving from the current policy based on preserving
the environment and keeping it clean and salubrious for future generations, the house with
interior courtyard may help guarantee the interior thermic comfort by natural, ecologic and
sustainable means. Transition spaces and, mainly, the interior courtyard are, at their core,
exteriors which are passively ventilated by the surrounding architecture, an architecture
which receives various configurations based on the specific climate, on materials and on the
thermic loading generated by the interior activity.

1. Smithson, Smithson 2004 – A. Smithson, P. Smithson, From the House of the Future to
a House of Today, edited By Dirk van den Heuvel and Max Risselada Publishers,
Rotterdam.
2. ***Alison and Peter Smithson- From the House of the Future to a House of Today.
Edited by Dirk van den Heuvel and Max Risselada Publishers, Rotterdam, 2004.
3. Alexandru 2012 – M. Alexandru, Bucureşti şi conflictul identităţilor, în Peisaj cultural,
arhitectură, tendinţe. 120 de ani de învăţământ de arhitectură, Editura Ion Mincu,
Bucureşti.
4. Balan 2011 – M. Balan, Curţile interioare al ecentrului istoric al Bucureştiukui şi
potenţialul lor de a regenera viaţa urbană în D. Onescu Tarbujaru (ed.), 10 ani de
învăţământ superior de arhitectură, Ed. Universitară Ion Mincu, Bucureşti, p. 59-78.
5. Voiculescu 1975 – S. Voiculescu, Centrul istoric- definire si delimitare, în Arhitectura,
4.