Courtyard - Relevance To The Architecture of Today

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.

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. In the Northern Areas of Pakistan, Gilgit/Baltistan, the history of courtyard is slightly different from the rest of the world. People used it for general gathering because people were live in cluster houses. It is called to be the meeting place, where the village related issued discussed, but it is different from the "Jirgah" which is the tradition of tribal areas of Pakistan. Now people use the courtyard for gardening and other purposes.