My home has an inner courtyard – Espaciel (2024)

FAQs

What is a house with an inner courtyard called? ›

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.

An inner courtyard can quickly become an obstacle to natural light and plunge a living space into darkness. The disadvantages of a courtyard can be the height of the walls which block the sun's rays if it is surrounded by buildings.

As the primary purpose of an internal courtyard is as a light well, we tend to maximise that light with a palette of pale materials and reflective surfaces, such as big mirrors, to reflect light back into the house.

A courtyard is an area outside a building that's framed and somewhat enclosed by walls. Your friend might ask you to meet her in the courtyard of her apartment complex. In cities, courtyards provide small, private outdoor areas. Courtyards are often nestled between buildings, or tucked away behind them.

Interior courtyards are mostly found in homes in warmer climates, where they help create a connection to the outdoors while bringing more light and air inside. Adding trees and green plants to the courtyards make for decorative spaces that also function as sheltered miniature gardens.

Courtyards in hot countries like Spain or the Middle East often used courtyards to collect water for household use. Also cool air would stratify in the courtyard and help cool off the house at night.

In the courtyard plants and fountains are used to cool the air through evaporations. In hot humid regions courtyard plans are good for encouraging through ventilation. In northern climates the courtyard archetype is used to allow sunlight to penetrate into the house.

The benefits a courtyard provide include increasing natural ventilation and daylight in the middle of a house. They are also great for introducing an outdoor area to the interior of your home.

That said, courtyard homes aren't inexpensive to build. The form of the home must be carved up into an L- or C-shape. That means you will have more perimeter walls to finish and insulate, and exterior materials are more expensive than sheetrock used indoors.

Courtyards are outdoor spaces typically enclosed on three or four sides and are open to the sky. Unlike a backyard, courtyards can be located within the footprint of a building to provide an alternate form of recreation space.

Why are courtyard houses important? ›

Courtyards introduce cross ventilation into a building, using the courtyard design to break the house into smaller, more manageable areas, with more walls opening onto the outdoors, so it's much easier to encourage a gentle breeze into the home.

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.

What are the disadvantages of internal courtyards? Although it's not a deal breaker, interior courtyards require a certain level of maintenance and cleaning, because they're open to the elements. If yours is home to deciduous plants, you may find yourself sweeping up leaves that blow inside.

A central courtyard, open to the sky, sandwiched between the dining and living areas in The Open House has a sunny disposition, in part due to natural light streaming in, and in part due to the bright yellow cushions and light-toned cedar battens that enclose the atrium.

The courtyard house is a type of dwelling in which the rooms are organized around a central private courtyard. The courtyard is an architectural form with its own rules that has generated multiple variations over time.

An enclosed courtyard, also known as a cloister or an atrium, is a space that is surrounded by walls or buildings on all sides.

Haveli, wada, deori, nalukettu—it was recognized by various aliases, depending on the region where it was found. But, to borrow a phrase from that redoubtable man of words, a courtyard house by any other name would be just that—more than just a form of architecture.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a courtyard is 'an area of flat ground that is partly or completely surrounded by the walls or a building' suggesting it is sited in a pocket amongst a series of buildings, or a single building that features a courtyard to the center.