Courtyard

The courtyard is one of the oldest and most enduring ideas in architecture. Surrounded by building on all or several sides, it offers outdoor space that is sheltered from the street yet open to the sky. Traditional Anatolian houses, madrasas, caravanserais and mosque forecourts all show their own versions of it. In Turkish it is called avlu.

Climate and everyday life

In hot, dry climates a courtyard creates a cooler microclimate through shade, water and planting. The rooms around it take their light and air from the courtyard rather than the street, which also protects privacy. It is a social space as well: cooking, working, children playing and guests being received all overlap there.

Courtyards in contemporary design

Housing schemes, schools and office buildings still use the courtyard as a calm, green, inward-looking centre. Unlike an atrium, a courtyard cut into a deep building is not roofed over, so it stays in direct contact with the weather. Designing one means thinking together about when the sun reaches the floor, how rainwater drains away, and how paving and planting work with each other.

Courtyards make powerful images. A camera looking into one shows the surrounding facades, the play of shadows and the landscape all at once, and the right sun angle sets the mood of the whole scene.