For my design idea for this post, I decided to talk about what I love about courtyards and how I think that they should be built. I will start off with the idea that not all courtyards have to be totally inside of the building or building complex because as long as the architect has built another portion or a connecting piece to go partway around the area, it will still have the intended look and feel. In my opinion, the only thing that a piece of land needs to have to be a courtyard is to be separated from the main street or piece of land that the property is on. There are many ways that an architect can make this change, such as the level the courtyard is on, using partial buildings around it, enclosing the rest with a wall, or even a building that encloses it fully. During this post, I'm going to give examples for these four ways to make a courtyard and also some examples of my favorite courtyards.
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These are the Ballymore Embassy Gardens
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Elevated Courtyard. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a picture of the bottom of the Seattle Municipal tower which I think is a much better example of using levels to distinguish the courtyard from the street. However, this building will work as well. As you can see, the area with walkways and plants in the middle is separated from the street by a set of stairs. This gives the area a feel of being secluded from the street even though it is only enclosed on two sides. This example shows that levels and stairs will create the look and feel of a courtyard for buildings that do not have the space or just not the design idea to have a fully enclosed courtyard.
Mostly Enclosed Courtyard. This is an example of a house that is partially enclosed with its courtyard. In this design, they used two sides to enclose and give a feeling of seclusion and then used the third open side to keep the courtyard open. This shows how partially enclosed courtyards can be used instead of fully enclosed. Whenever most people think of a courtyard, they probably think of the old style of fully enclosed courtyards such as a building with a wall that is fully around the planted courtyard. This design can be used as I will show in the next section, but more and more modern homes are having partially enclosed courtyards with at least one open side like the one above.
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| Mt. Baker Courtyard |
Enclosed With a Fence Courtyard. I did some background research on this house. It is actually in a busy part of a neighborhood, though with the plants and fence, they effectively make this courtyard feel secluded and private. This shows that even though it is next to a busy house, you don't need the house too fully enclose the courtyard to make it feel private. Also, it uses no windows to make the house feel separated from the courtyard but still close.
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| McWilliams Spanish Revival Style |
Fully enclosed by a Building. This courtyard is a fully enclosed courtyard and is surrounded on all four sides by its house. This is a kind of courtyard that is becoming rarer as more houses take on the first 3 styles. This type can only be surrounded by certain kinds of houses The best houses to use generally shouldn't have roofs and should be more or less the same level of house everywhere. If used right, these courtyards can be very interesting.
The main idea of the blog post is...
There are many kinds of ways to make courtyards, and each of them can be used in different houses and if used right all can be awesome and fantastic. Courtyards are one of my favorite things to put into my house designs, and I hope that more courtyards can work their way into more of the architectural designs of the future.
Citations:
http://stylishdecorating.com/images/image_21258.jpg
http://st.houzz.com/fimgs/6df18ff00d5afc8e_9582-w422-h588-b0-p0--mediterranean-landscape.jpg
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRFkJoVlrgaVFRzt7LY01tmUayyxIuPo4eswc28jIvRPRvAGnhNCw
http://www.embassygardens.com/cms_images/31323_24-09-2012_6377.jpg
