For alternative meanings of the word "court", see: Court (disambiguation). Residenz is the German word for " residence " It normally meant the residence of nobility Munich (München; Minga is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. Bavaria ( German:, with an area of 70553 Km² (27241 square miles and almost 12
A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. In Architecture, Construction, Engineering and real estate development the word building may refer to one of the following Any man-made These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court. Inns are establishments where travellers can procure Food, Drink, and Lodging.
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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 term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation The earliest known courtyard houses were built in Iran and China and date as far back as 3000 BC. A courtyard house is a type of House - often a large house - where the main part of the building is disposed around a central Courtyard. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The 30th century BC is a Century which lasted from the year 3000 BC to 2901 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. Fire is the heat and light energy released during a Chemical reaction, in particular a combustion reaction. A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that bounds the upper limit of a room. Smoke is the collection of airborne solid and liquid Particulates and Gases ref> ''Smoke Production and Properties'' - SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering 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. Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively
Comparison of courtyard houses throughout the world
Ur, 2000 BC — two-story houses constructed around an open square were built of fired brick. This article is about the Alhambra in Granada Spain For other meanings see Alhambra (disambiguation. Andalusia (Andalucía is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the most populous and the second largest in terms of land area Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. The 20th century BC is a Century which lasted from the year 2000 BC to 1901 BC Kitchen, working, and public spaces were located on the ground floor, with private rooms located upstairs. For the Banana Yashimoto novel see Kitchen (novel A kitchen, is a room or part of a room (sometimes called "kitchen
The central uncovered area in a Roman domus was referred to as an atrium. A domus was the form of house that wealthy and some Middle class families owned in Ancient Rome and could be found in almost all the major cities of the In modern Architecture, an atrium (plural atria is a large open space often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows often situated within an 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. The impluvium is the sunken part of the atrium in a Greek or Roman house ( Domus) These homes frequently incorporated a second open-air area, the garden, which would be surrounded by Greek-style colonnades, forming a peristyle. In Classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of Columns joined by their Entablature, often free-standing as in the famous elliptically In Greek and Roman architecture a peristyle is a Columned Porch or open Colonnade in a Building that surrounds a court 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. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. 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. A siheyuan ( is a historical type of residence that was commonly found throughout China, most famously in Beijing. 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. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West 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: [1].
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. The European Parliament ( Europarl or EP) is the only directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU Strasbourg (Strasbourg stʁazbuʁ Alsatian: Strossburi,; Straßburg) is the capital and principal City of the Alsace région 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. The Inca Empire (or Inka Empire) was the largest empire in Pre-Columbian America.
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. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city A patio (from the Spanish patio meaning 'back garden' or 'backyard' is an outdoor space generally used for dining or Recreation that often adjoins a Central patios provide natural light to common areas and space for potted outdoor plants.
Examples of courtyards
- Belcourt Castle, in Newport, Rhode Island
- Buckingham Palace in London, England
- Trinity Great Court, in Trinity College, Cambridge
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
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