...I attached a pic to make my idea more clear.

...hello, I'm a student working on a project were i have designed a number of houses that connect to each other through a pathway and in the middle theres a garden,(the houses around the garden). My problem is that this project is located in Abudhabi were it is a very sunny and hot place. I wont the pathway to be open to the garden (people can go out from their houses directly to the garden) and at the same time i want it to be cool (if one person wants to visit the other he will go through the pathway) if you have any ideas please help.