Dictionary Definition
courtyard n : a yard wholly or partly surrounded
by walls or buildings; "the house was built around an inner court"
[syn: court]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
Noun
Translations
- Croatian: dvor
- Dutch: binnenplaats
- French: cour
- German: Hof
- Hebrew: חצר (khatzer)
- Hungarian: udvar
- Italian: cortile, corte
- Kurdish:
- Romanian: curte
See also
Extensive Definition
For alternative meanings of the word "court",
see: Court
(disambiguation).
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.
Historic use of courtyards
Courtyards—private open spaces surrounded by walls or buildings—have been in use in residential architecture for almost as long as man has lived in constructed dwellings. The earliest known courtyard houses were built in Iran and China and date as far back as 3000 BC. 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 in every century.
Courtyard homes are perhaps 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
tranquility—are properties nearly universally desired in
human housing.
Comparison of courtyard houses throughout the world
Ur, 2000 BC — two-story 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.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-story homes without windows that took in
light from the entrance and from the center 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.
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 location of the sun. Often the
flat rooftops of these structures were used for sleeping in warm
weather. In some Islamic cultures, private courtyards provide the
only outdoor space for women to relax unobserved. 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.
The medieval European farmhouse embodies what we
think of today as one of the most archetypal examples of a
courtyard house—four 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.
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
medditerranean 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 have been copied
throughout the western coast of the United States. They are so
typical for Los Angeles that several TV series were recorded, among
others, Melrose Place: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103491/.
Relevance to the architecture of today
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 BC.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.
Examples of courtyards
See also
- Atrium
- Peristyle
- Cloister
- Patio garden
- Cour d'honneur
- Traditional Arabic courtyard, Sahn
References
- Courtyard:Turkish Death Metal Band, * Atrium Buildings: Development and Design, by Richard Saxon 1983, The Architectural Press, London
- A History of Architecture, by Spiro Kostof 1995, The Oxford Press
courtyard in Bulgarian: Вътрешен двор
courtyard in German: Hof (Architektur)
courtyard in Italian: Corte (architettura)
courtyard in Norwegian: Borggård
courtyard in Polish: Dziedziniec
courtyard in Russian: Двор-колодец
courtyard in Swedish: Borggård