I've always loved courtyard buildings. Growing up in the desert southwest, courtyards were private, shady places where a small amount of water would perceptually cool a larger area. I was more used to them on a small residential scale, but there are lots of bigger ones, too.
This space in the new ENR building at UofA actually reminds me a lot of the original courtyard of the College of Architecture, also at UofA, where I studied. (By the time I attended that courtyard had been roofed over into exactly the kind of vast air-conditioned atrium space that R+B wanted to avoid in this building.)
So now I live in the US Midwest, and courtyard houses (or any scale building) aren't really a typology here. There are courtyard houses in China and Germany, but they were also based on fortifications. I'm not sure they make sense here. The climate changes so drastically that general shade isn't as important as seasonal sunshading is. I don't know that courtyards are a benefit with tornados....
Does anyone know of good Midwest courtyard typologies? Or should I just move back to the desert?
David Cole, AIA
Dec 15, 15 11:58 am
Four-story courtyard apartment buildings were built all over Chicago throughout the 1920s. The ones that have been properly maintained are still pretty nice... Far nicer than most vernacular housing that was being built in NYC at the same time.
gwharton
Dec 15, 15 12:02 pm
Those early courtyard buildings were built that way primarily for natural light and ventilation for high density development in the era before HVAC and ubiquitous artificial lighting.
In the midwest climate, without the need for those things, courtyards probably don't make much sense anymore, which is why you don't see them as much (also, the codes all changed too).
But ... on the other hand ... if a courtyard building had an operable lid on it that could allow the court to be a winter garden / tempered outdoor space in cold weather and shaded cool space in summer, it might be worth doing.
poop876
Dec 15, 15 12:17 pm
I've seem them more and more lately, where the courtyard is the pool area on top of a garage podium.
curtkram
Dec 15, 15 12:51 pm
i think exiting would be harder to manage if you have multiple tenants on a floor, or changing leases throughout the lifecycle of the building, in a courtyard building.
in arizona you would sit in the courtyard, but in the midwest that's really not the point. my history lessons taught me the same as what gwharton said, but most of that stops working if you don't have operable windows. also, they put those vents over doors back in the day so the breeze could go from office - hall - office. seal those up and it quits working.
i can't recall ever seeing any midwest courtyard houses. it's humid in the summer here, so evaporative cooling from a water feature doesn't work the same. shade is nice in the summer, but a porch with a porch swing is more effective (if you swing on the porch swing, it gives you a breeze to help cool you down). you can get tire swings for the kids too, because we have big trees.
Donna Sink
Dec 15, 15 1:12 pm
That Richard + Bauer building is awesome, tho. Don't you guys agree? I can point to two design studio projects I did - in 1989 and 1990 - that have similar courtyard treatments. If I can find the drawings I'll share them LOL!
x-jla
Dec 15, 15 1:21 pm
^ Very nice building!
,,,,
Dec 15, 15 1:58 pm
It is really nice, although the logic is too willful for me personally.
geezertect
Dec 15, 15 2:01 pm
If you put a lid over it you have an atrium. Significant building code issues. Also, how do you heat it in the winter without breaking the bank?
If it's open to sky it will fill with snow and probably won't have enough sun to melt it for most of the winter. Who's going to sit out there in January? If the landscaping (if any) dies, you have to get it out of there somehow. You also have maximized the exterior wall area which has energy considerations. A u-shape is probably more practical.
anonitect
Dec 15, 15 2:38 pm
All in all, a pretty interesting building. I've always wondered what architects really mean when they describe a building as too willful. It's a weird criticism.
Donna, Do you think that people will actually use the exterior spaces during Arizona's summers? If it's 100 degrees out, in the shade it'll be what, 85? Seems like a 3 season situation there, too. I can't think of any really exciting examples of courtyard buildings in the midwest, but there were a few pretty good academic buildings and dormitories with courtyards that got used in good weather at my alma mater.
3tk
Dec 15, 15 3:26 pm
Very nice. My MN high school and junior high had courtyards - we could only use them in limited amounts, but being able to go outside during those precious warm months was pretty awesome. The building was only 2 stories so that the shade was less of an issue.
David Cole, AIA
Dec 15, 15 3:49 pm
I love that Richard + Bauer project. I imagine the courtyard will be well-utilized, and I've seen how such passive cooling strategies can make a huge difference in that kind of climate.
I remember attending architectural history lectures in undergrad where they'd show a bunch of slides about traditional Middle Eastern architecture, and I'd usually zone out. But while living in LA we visited a job site way out in the Inland Empire when it was well over 100 degrees in the sun. I was amazed at how abruptly the temperature dropped the minute I stepped into the shade; it must have been at least a 20-degree difference. I'm used to the Midwest humidity where you choke to death on the summer heat no matter where you are, day or night, but out in the desert it actually felt pretty comfortable in the shade, and all those traditional Middle Eastern buildings suddenly made all the sense in the world.
Donna Sink
Dec 15, 15 4:15 pm
Excellent post, David, and absolutely correct. You definitely need shade in the summer desert and it makes an enormous difference. anonitect, you might not spend a lot of time hanging out outside when it's 117 in the summer, but you do have to be outside periodically as you move around during the day and every little bit of shade helps.
The Architecture building at Ann Arbor has a courtyard. It was used for volleyball games a little in the summer, but in winter was definitely just a place to smoke and freeze your fingertips off as you did so.
awaiting_deletion
Dec 15, 15 4:42 pm
geezer is correct you have to out a lid on it to make it work in mid-west. if its only glass seperating you from the sky the effects will still be felt and space will feel almost like outdoors.
mightyaa
Dec 15, 15 4:52 pm
We've been doing semi-enclosed courtyards a lot lately here in Colorado on our commercial and multifamily. Few reasons; cover space over the parking garages, higher lease rates (outside windows, opening up doors to courtyards), landscape coverage for zoning. On my latest, we're using it also as a rain garden to handle the water quality control requirements.
natematt
Dec 16, 15 2:57 am
^Donna, it's mostly just for smoking now.
Almost all of the courtyards I can think of back home were not accessible, they were really just for light and looks, and you'd see them in hospitals and schools. Some would be larger, but they didn’t seem very successfully unless they were essentially forced on people by lack of other space. Without the added temperature benefits you might as well just go outside. That’s is what people do, favoring patios, decks, porches, w/e.
One interesting example of a courtyard that pops into my mind though is the Kresge Court in the Detroit Institute of Art, which at one point was an open courtyard, but now works quite nicely as an enclosed space. That reminds me that the Grand Rapids art museum also has one, which is actually a nice contemporary example of a building, but the courtyard is completely inaccessible and super sterile.
curtkram
Dec 16, 15 9:34 am
mighty, grats on the new job. do you know if people walk their dogs in those courtyards? or is it mostly a place for smokers, or a place to chill at a bench and get some sun while reading a book sort of thing?
the midwest courtyards i'm familiar with are all about the windows, and have little to do with the courtyard itself.
Donna Sink
Dec 16, 15 11:21 am
nate, the courtyard(s) at GRAM are definitely of the "cool space to look into but don't go there" variety! Which is fine, the house I grew up in had one of those. We had an olive tree growing in it, and it brought light (but not sun) deep into the house.
Probably my favorite courtyard building of all time - though that's a hard decision to make - is James Stirling's Neue Staatgalerie in Stuttgart. haters gonna hate PoMo, but the way that building's outdoor spaces function urbanistically is sheer genius, and a benefit to the entire city.
citizen
Dec 16, 15 11:52 am
That Sterling building is fantastic, Donna. Nice thread, too.
mightyaa
Dec 16, 15 4:28 pm
mighty, grats on the new job. do you know if people walk their dogs in those courtyards? or is it mostly a place for smokers, or a place to chill at a bench and get some sun while reading a book sort of thing?
Not really. It’s more of a formally arranged space. Walks, planter beds, seating areas, etc. Really it is more of a function of the building space around it. Much nicer looking into a private park that lives and breathes than looking into a atrium that never changes. Like you noticed; it's more about the windows and looking out into this space than the space itself.
Carrera
Dec 16, 15 4:48 pm
My first job after high school was in an architectural office on the 10th floor of this historic building…courtyard for reasons stated, but had a wire glass roof at the first floor (shops on 1st fl.)…one day we heard a huge crash….an attorney did a swan dive onto the glass roof…horrified at 17.
Carrera
Dec 16, 15 5:12 pm
Back in the day of T-squares.....
McGregor Memorial Conference Center in Detroit - Minoru Yamasaki
shellarchitect
Dec 16, 15 6:01 pm
Dime building?
Carrera
Dec 16, 15 9:25 pm
^ Qualifies....
Christopher Perrodin
Dec 17, 15 2:41 am
A courtyard with a 50% porosity windbreak surrounding it and considerate sun angled shading would make all the effort worth it. In the winter, it seemed like there was no place I could be without a consistent cold wind blowing on me. And in the summer, you are right, every bit of shade counts, and I'm sure a small pool of cool air is better than an open plane under the sun.
Volunteer
Dec 17, 15 7:54 am
In Phoenix there are several restaurants that have courtyard seating in the evening: it seems to be very popular even though the space is not usable during the day because of the heat much of the year. In Cali. the use of gas-fired open-pit fireplaces outdoors to ward off the chill are everywhere. In the Midwest climate a U-shaped building with a maximum of two stories, open to the south/southwest for the maximum sun, and with a fire pit might work. You would need deciduous trees in the courtyard for summer shade and maybe a low hedge or low stone wall across the open end for a winter wind-break.
no_form
Dec 17, 15 9:47 am
Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. It's covered, but the light there in winter is amazing.
Also the Bradbury building. Covered but amazing quality of light.
Peter Normand
Dec 17, 15 10:15 am
I think the courtyard building works or has worked well in Chicago in the early 20th late 19th century because of the expense of lighting. I worked in The Rookery in Chicago and the huge light shaft is now caped with a glass roof but it is still such a nice space because every bay of the building is adjacent to a window. Also the interior of the courtyard is clad in white glazed brick and gilded tiles and decoration, light, being precious back then, is bounced around and can come at you in surprising ways throughout the day.
The open top and huge double hung windows were essential in the hot summer days before air conditioning which were the prime times to work late as the days and the light lasted longer but the heat was an issue. I also suspect the courtyards provided clean air as compared to the dirt dust and manure in the streets.
The Rookery is especially nice because the courtyard is large enough to be able to see the sky from windows near the bottom of the light court on the 3rd floor of the atrium that brings light into the 12 story building. Buildings of the time were very good at passive cooling and natural day lighting.
As for the courtyard housing in Chicago, which often are U shaped buildings, they allowed for greater density but also the dignity or luxury of front doors and windows on the public or street side and many of the courtyards are exquisitely landscaped. Also a driving factor was fire safety having 8 units linked to a pair of stairs and front and back door instead of long halls with dozens of units meant that a potential fire could be contained within masonry separation walls. I live in a courtyard building in Chicago and it is nice but for the sounds echoing in the courtyard when your hearing impaired neighbor leaves the TV on and the windows open. It is the farthest thing you can get from typical suburban housing where you see and hear your neighbors.
Sometimes we need to look to the past for solutions to today's problems.
Over and OUT
Peter N
x-jla
Dec 17, 15 11:27 am
Japan has a long history of cold climate courtyard houses ...see andos Azuma house...
Stephanie Braconnier
Dec 17, 15 4:55 pm
What's shown above are not examples of what I would consider real courtyards. A sliver of non-built mass surrounded by more than 6 stories does not a courtyard make. Then it's just a dreary chimney of darkness.
Nearly all of Scandinavia is colder, darker, windier, and snowier than most populated places in North America and courtyard typology is alive and well. However these courtyards are sizable; quite often double or more the footprint of the surrounding building mass, which tops out at 5 stories to realistically allow light into all units.
When I lived in Copenhagen, I really loved that my apartment had access to light (sometimes this was only theoretical, since in the winter we averaged 0.6 hours of sunlight per day) from both the street and the courtyard. The courtyard had a common bike storage area, barbecue zone, play area for kids, a green space with trees, sandbox, a tennis court, laundry hanging area, etc. It's basically everything you do in your backyard or garage...in a courtyard. There was even a rabbit hutch with 6 or 7 bunnies. No idea who took care of them, but it was nice they were there.
In Berlin, they have the 'vorderhaus' and 'hinterhaus' meaning respectively, the front building and back building. The front building faced the street and courtyard. The back building was accessed through a front gate, through the courtyard. Some of the courtyards were smallish and you avoided rentals for anything less than the 3rd floor, since you knew you wouldn't get *direct* sunlight below that level in the winter. But still, you got light from the front and back and the average depth of the building mass was only 12-15 meters.
Places like Toronto almost have a courtyard-like residential typology when there are attached or semi-detached row houses with backyards and a common servicing alley. Some of these (also called laneways here) can be quite lovely.
I'd love it if the intensification of our building fabric included courtyard typology housing, but with the condo boom reaching into 40, 50+ stories... it's difficult to see that ever happening. Now we have the landscape architect's living nightmare: the condo "amenity courtyard" - a lifeless yoga deck exposed to the wind with fountain grasses in concrete planters... *shudders*
Volunteer
Dec 18, 15 7:04 am
On the other hand the French, which usually do this sort of thing exquisitely well, seem to have screwed the pooch with the courtyard of the Élysées Palace, a barren field of gravel with some potted plants along the side. You have visions of some prisoners gathered there being read the riot act before being shipped off to French Guiana.
Donna Sink
Dec 18, 15 8:38 am
Stephanie, that's a great post. That's the type of house I lived in in Vienna. The semi-public space of the courtyard was definitely an amenity both for light and for other activities. There are a few similar exmples in Philadelphia, where the rowhouses all face out but share a courtyard space in the interior of the block. The difference there is that your personal space spans vertically rather than horizontally, so every unit has a ground, 2nd, and 3rd floor.
Stephanie Braconnier
Dec 18, 15 11:28 am
Donna - that sounds wonderful.
Sadly, I feel like the era of "free" communal, private/semi public amenity space is over (before it began in NA pretty much...). No developer - even those with the best of city-building intentions - is going to provide more than the municipally mandated square meters per unit and owners have no input into how their amenity space is designed. They also pay dearly for their 'shared amenity'.
The reality is that there's no opportunity for residents to make a courtyard fit their needs (especially as that mix changes over time) like there is in open courtyards of Europe.
As an aside, I love the thoughts of Adriaan Geuze on the usefulness of unprogrammed open spaces in the city:
"In principle, the city dweller--a permanent hostage to the 100 percent predetermined use of space--craves [the] sort of undefined spaces that have no specified function but are nevertheless useful because they are accessible."
This freaking awesome and wonderful building by Richard and Bauer makes me think again about courtyards.
I've always loved courtyard buildings. Growing up in the desert southwest, courtyards were private, shady places where a small amount of water would perceptually cool a larger area. I was more used to them on a small residential scale, but there are lots of bigger ones, too.
This space in the new ENR building at UofA actually reminds me a lot of the original courtyard of the College of Architecture, also at UofA, where I studied. (By the time I attended that courtyard had been roofed over into exactly the kind of vast air-conditioned atrium space that R+B wanted to avoid in this building.)
So now I live in the US Midwest, and courtyard houses (or any scale building) aren't really a typology here. There are courtyard houses in China and Germany, but they were also based on fortifications. I'm not sure they make sense here. The climate changes so drastically that general shade isn't as important as seasonal sunshading is. I don't know that courtyards are a benefit with tornados....
Does anyone know of good Midwest courtyard typologies? Or should I just move back to the desert?
Four-story courtyard apartment buildings were built all over Chicago throughout the 1920s. The ones that have been properly maintained are still pretty nice... Far nicer than most vernacular housing that was being built in NYC at the same time.
Those early courtyard buildings were built that way primarily for natural light and ventilation for high density development in the era before HVAC and ubiquitous artificial lighting.
In the midwest climate, without the need for those things, courtyards probably don't make much sense anymore, which is why you don't see them as much (also, the codes all changed too).
But ... on the other hand ... if a courtyard building had an operable lid on it that could allow the court to be a winter garden / tempered outdoor space in cold weather and shaded cool space in summer, it might be worth doing.
I've seem them more and more lately, where the courtyard is the pool area on top of a garage podium.
i think exiting would be harder to manage if you have multiple tenants on a floor, or changing leases throughout the lifecycle of the building, in a courtyard building.
in arizona you would sit in the courtyard, but in the midwest that's really not the point. my history lessons taught me the same as what gwharton said, but most of that stops working if you don't have operable windows. also, they put those vents over doors back in the day so the breeze could go from office - hall - office. seal those up and it quits working.
i can't recall ever seeing any midwest courtyard houses. it's humid in the summer here, so evaporative cooling from a water feature doesn't work the same. shade is nice in the summer, but a porch with a porch swing is more effective (if you swing on the porch swing, it gives you a breeze to help cool you down). you can get tire swings for the kids too, because we have big trees.
That Richard + Bauer building is awesome, tho. Don't you guys agree? I can point to two design studio projects I did - in 1989 and 1990 - that have similar courtyard treatments. If I can find the drawings I'll share them LOL!
^ Very nice building!
It is really nice, although the logic is too willful for me personally.
If you put a lid over it you have an atrium. Significant building code issues. Also, how do you heat it in the winter without breaking the bank?
If it's open to sky it will fill with snow and probably won't have enough sun to melt it for most of the winter. Who's going to sit out there in January? If the landscaping (if any) dies, you have to get it out of there somehow. You also have maximized the exterior wall area which has energy considerations. A u-shape is probably more practical.
All in all, a pretty interesting building. I've always wondered what architects really mean when they describe a building as too willful. It's a weird criticism.
Donna, Do you think that people will actually use the exterior spaces during Arizona's summers? If it's 100 degrees out, in the shade it'll be what, 85? Seems like a 3 season situation there, too. I can't think of any really exciting examples of courtyard buildings in the midwest, but there were a few pretty good academic buildings and dormitories with courtyards that got used in good weather at my alma mater.
Very nice. My MN high school and junior high had courtyards - we could only use them in limited amounts, but being able to go outside during those precious warm months was pretty awesome. The building was only 2 stories so that the shade was less of an issue.
I love that Richard + Bauer project. I imagine the courtyard will be well-utilized, and I've seen how such passive cooling strategies can make a huge difference in that kind of climate.
I remember attending architectural history lectures in undergrad where they'd show a bunch of slides about traditional Middle Eastern architecture, and I'd usually zone out. But while living in LA we visited a job site way out in the Inland Empire when it was well over 100 degrees in the sun. I was amazed at how abruptly the temperature dropped the minute I stepped into the shade; it must have been at least a 20-degree difference. I'm used to the Midwest humidity where you choke to death on the summer heat no matter where you are, day or night, but out in the desert it actually felt pretty comfortable in the shade, and all those traditional Middle Eastern buildings suddenly made all the sense in the world.
Excellent post, David, and absolutely correct. You definitely need shade in the summer desert and it makes an enormous difference. anonitect, you might not spend a lot of time hanging out outside when it's 117 in the summer, but you do have to be outside periodically as you move around during the day and every little bit of shade helps.
The Architecture building at Ann Arbor has a courtyard. It was used for volleyball games a little in the summer, but in winter was definitely just a place to smoke and freeze your fingertips off as you did so.
geezer is correct you have to out a lid on it to make it work in mid-west. if its only glass seperating you from the sky the effects will still be felt and space will feel almost like outdoors.
We've been doing semi-enclosed courtyards a lot lately here in Colorado on our commercial and multifamily. Few reasons; cover space over the parking garages, higher lease rates (outside windows, opening up doors to courtyards), landscape coverage for zoning. On my latest, we're using it also as a rain garden to handle the water quality control requirements.
^Donna, it's mostly just for smoking now.
Almost all of the courtyards I can think of back home were not accessible, they were really just for light and looks, and you'd see them in hospitals and schools. Some would be larger, but they didn’t seem very successfully unless they were essentially forced on people by lack of other space. Without the added temperature benefits you might as well just go outside. That’s is what people do, favoring patios, decks, porches, w/e.
One interesting example of a courtyard that pops into my mind though is the Kresge Court in the Detroit Institute of Art, which at one point was an open courtyard, but now works quite nicely as an enclosed space. That reminds me that the Grand Rapids art museum also has one, which is actually a nice contemporary example of a building, but the courtyard is completely inaccessible and super sterile.
mighty, grats on the new job. do you know if people walk their dogs in those courtyards? or is it mostly a place for smokers, or a place to chill at a bench and get some sun while reading a book sort of thing?
the midwest courtyards i'm familiar with are all about the windows, and have little to do with the courtyard itself.
nate, the courtyard(s) at GRAM are definitely of the "cool space to look into but don't go there" variety! Which is fine, the house I grew up in had one of those. We had an olive tree growing in it, and it brought light (but not sun) deep into the house.
Probably my favorite courtyard building of all time - though that's a hard decision to make - is James Stirling's Neue Staatgalerie in Stuttgart. haters gonna hate PoMo, but the way that building's outdoor spaces function urbanistically is sheer genius, and a benefit to the entire city.
That Sterling building is fantastic, Donna. Nice thread, too.
mighty, grats on the new job. do you know if people walk their dogs in those courtyards? or is it mostly a place for smokers, or a place to chill at a bench and get some sun while reading a book sort of thing?
Not really. It’s more of a formally arranged space. Walks, planter beds, seating areas, etc. Really it is more of a function of the building space around it. Much nicer looking into a private park that lives and breathes than looking into a atrium that never changes. Like you noticed; it's more about the windows and looking out into this space than the space itself.
My first job after high school was in an architectural office on the 10th floor of this historic building…courtyard for reasons stated, but had a wire glass roof at the first floor (shops on 1st fl.)…one day we heard a huge crash….an attorney did a swan dive onto the glass roof…horrified at 17.
Back in the day of T-squares.....
McGregor Memorial Conference Center in Detroit - Minoru Yamasaki
Dime building?
^ Qualifies....
A courtyard with a 50% porosity windbreak surrounding it and considerate sun angled shading would make all the effort worth it. In the winter, it seemed like there was no place I could be without a consistent cold wind blowing on me. And in the summer, you are right, every bit of shade counts, and I'm sure a small pool of cool air is better than an open plane under the sun.
In Phoenix there are several restaurants that have courtyard seating in the evening: it seems to be very popular even though the space is not usable during the day because of the heat much of the year. In Cali. the use of gas-fired open-pit fireplaces outdoors to ward off the chill are everywhere. In the Midwest climate a U-shaped building with a maximum of two stories, open to the south/southwest for the maximum sun, and with a fire pit might work. You would need deciduous trees in the courtyard for summer shade and maybe a low hedge or low stone wall across the open end for a winter wind-break.
Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. It's covered, but the light there in winter is amazing.
Also the Bradbury building. Covered but amazing quality of light.
I think the courtyard building works or has worked well in Chicago in the early 20th late 19th century because of the expense of lighting. I worked in The Rookery in Chicago and the huge light shaft is now caped with a glass roof but it is still such a nice space because every bay of the building is adjacent to a window. Also the interior of the courtyard is clad in white glazed brick and gilded tiles and decoration, light, being precious back then, is bounced around and can come at you in surprising ways throughout the day.
The open top and huge double hung windows were essential in the hot summer days before air conditioning which were the prime times to work late as the days and the light lasted longer but the heat was an issue. I also suspect the courtyards provided clean air as compared to the dirt dust and manure in the streets.
The Rookery is especially nice because the courtyard is large enough to be able to see the sky from windows near the bottom of the light court on the 3rd floor of the atrium that brings light into the 12 story building. Buildings of the time were very good at passive cooling and natural day lighting.
As for the courtyard housing in Chicago, which often are U shaped buildings, they allowed for greater density but also the dignity or luxury of front doors and windows on the public or street side and many of the courtyards are exquisitely landscaped. Also a driving factor was fire safety having 8 units linked to a pair of stairs and front and back door instead of long halls with dozens of units meant that a potential fire could be contained within masonry separation walls. I live in a courtyard building in Chicago and it is nice but for the sounds echoing in the courtyard when your hearing impaired neighbor leaves the TV on and the windows open. It is the farthest thing you can get from typical suburban housing where you see and hear your neighbors.
Sometimes we need to look to the past for solutions to today's problems.
Over and OUT
Peter N
Japan has a long history of cold climate courtyard houses ...see andos Azuma house...
What's shown above are not examples of what I would consider real courtyards. A sliver of non-built mass surrounded by more than 6 stories does not a courtyard make. Then it's just a dreary chimney of darkness.
Nearly all of Scandinavia is colder, darker, windier, and snowier than most populated places in North America and courtyard typology is alive and well. However these courtyards are sizable; quite often double or more the footprint of the surrounding building mass, which tops out at 5 stories to realistically allow light into all units.
When I lived in Copenhagen, I really loved that my apartment had access to light (sometimes this was only theoretical, since in the winter we averaged 0.6 hours of sunlight per day) from both the street and the courtyard. The courtyard had a common bike storage area, barbecue zone, play area for kids, a green space with trees, sandbox, a tennis court, laundry hanging area, etc. It's basically everything you do in your backyard or garage...in a courtyard. There was even a rabbit hutch with 6 or 7 bunnies. No idea who took care of them, but it was nice they were there.
In Berlin, they have the 'vorderhaus' and 'hinterhaus' meaning respectively, the front building and back building. The front building faced the street and courtyard. The back building was accessed through a front gate, through the courtyard. Some of the courtyards were smallish and you avoided rentals for anything less than the 3rd floor, since you knew you wouldn't get *direct* sunlight below that level in the winter. But still, you got light from the front and back and the average depth of the building mass was only 12-15 meters.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hotcommodity/23447564899/in/dateposted/
Here's a picture of one of the courtyards of a house I lived in in Berlin:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hotcommodity/8943025759/in/album-72157633914077351/
View through the front passage of the vorderhaus to the courtyard and hinterhaus in Bergmannkiez, Berlin:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hotcommodity/8942536965/in/album-72157633914077351/
Places like Toronto almost have a courtyard-like residential typology when there are attached or semi-detached row houses with backyards and a common servicing alley. Some of these (also called laneways here) can be quite lovely.
I'd love it if the intensification of our building fabric included courtyard typology housing, but with the condo boom reaching into 40, 50+ stories... it's difficult to see that ever happening. Now we have the landscape architect's living nightmare: the condo "amenity courtyard" - a lifeless yoga deck exposed to the wind with fountain grasses in concrete planters... *shudders*
On the other hand the French, which usually do this sort of thing exquisitely well, seem to have screwed the pooch with the courtyard of the Élysées Palace, a barren field of gravel with some potted plants along the side. You have visions of some prisoners gathered there being read the riot act before being shipped off to French Guiana.
Stephanie, that's a great post. That's the type of house I lived in in Vienna. The semi-public space of the courtyard was definitely an amenity both for light and for other activities. There are a few similar exmples in Philadelphia, where the rowhouses all face out but share a courtyard space in the interior of the block. The difference there is that your personal space spans vertically rather than horizontally, so every unit has a ground, 2nd, and 3rd floor.
Donna - that sounds wonderful.
Sadly, I feel like the era of "free" communal, private/semi public amenity space is over (before it began in NA pretty much...). No developer - even those with the best of city-building intentions - is going to provide more than the municipally mandated square meters per unit and owners have no input into how their amenity space is designed. They also pay dearly for their 'shared amenity'.
The reality is that there's no opportunity for residents to make a courtyard fit their needs (especially as that mix changes over time) like there is in open courtyards of Europe.
As an aside, I love the thoughts of Adriaan Geuze on the usefulness of unprogrammed open spaces in the city:
"In principle, the city dweller--a permanent hostage to the 100 percent predetermined use of space--craves [the] sort of undefined spaces that have no specified function but are nevertheless useful because they are accessible."
*sigh*