In the forthcoming decades housing will be facing major controversial issues such as those of achieving higher densities, obtaining socio-cultural acceptance through the retention of the inherent qualities of low rise, low density dwellings, and that of attaining sustainability. / Courtyard housing addresses these issues fairly effectively with at least one individual courtyard allocated to every single dwelling unit. Apart from achieving higher densities, it possesses qualities such as ground relatedness, security, territoriality, dwelling identifiability, image of home, personalization, adaptability to alternative lifestyles, the provision of private outdoor space, and child surveillance possibility. These are qualities seldom found in other housing typologies with similar densities and are almost non existent in high-rise, high density projects. Sustainability is achieved through economies in land, infrastructure, building materials, energy, as well as socio-cultural stability. / This study investigates the courtyard, the house, the neighborhood, the city and how these relate to the qualities mentioned above. A comprehensive and exhaustive review is also made of courtyard housing projects published since 1960. These are compared and analysed in order to derive possible improvements and suggest alternative solutions.

No description available.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-191).

No abstract available / Dissertation (ML (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Architecture / unrestricted

The theme of the thesis is design of modern building in the largest inner courtyard in Brno. The task is to design a structure that will suitably complement the existing structure and also solve problems with traffic and pedestrian permeability, parking and so on. Additional layer is the work with incomplete historical context of urban design.

Having grown up in a India, the importance of the courtyard was imbedded in the very essence of the understanding the architecture of a house.The project started of with the intention of designing a courtyard house, and eventually evolved to a house based on the principles of Indian building norms and cultures that have been cultivated for centuries. The fact that it is designed in the setting of Blacksburg, Virginia, these norms and cultural aspects were modified to suit the context of its surroundings. The projects resolves itself through details of practical elements that are romantisized by implementation of Indian building traditions and everyday rituals while the structural aspects of the house was made to reflect the local practices and methods. / Master of Architecture

With globalization and competition the importance of education is increasing daily. Hence the student migration is increasing a lot not just nationally but internationally too. There are students who travel from one place to another…one country to another…one culture to another…It is so important to provide a place where they can come together, communicate with each other and share their social and cultural values. At the same time creating spaces that provides a sense of safety and privacy has become important. The site was located in the hustle and bustle of the city, which itself challenging in terms of maintaining a quite and calm atmosphere. In my thesis I tried to achieve all the above parameters by providing "Courtyard Planning" that is based on ancient archaic notion of "Vastu Purush Mandala"- A matrix of nine planets. A large courtyard at the center also reveals a series of "hidden" secondary courtyard spaces, one after another, as one walks through the complex. These horizontal and vertical spaces give rise to more interaction and communication in order to bridge a cultural gap between students. / Master of Architecture

Lam Chi Man. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2005-2006, design report." / Includes bibliographical references.

Siheyuan is a traditional Chinese dwelling type. The term is made up with three characters: Si means four, He means enclosure and Yuan means yard. The literal translation of Siheyuan means quadrangle. I have a great childhood memory of living in such kind of environment. It has remained my study interest through the years as a Landscape Architecture student, and eventually became my practicum topic. The purpose of this practicum is to explore the traditional Chinese courtyard dwelling types with a particular emphasis on the Siheyuan. By conducting case studies on sheltered dwellings in different cultures, it is hoped that valuable lessons about courtyards can be learned so as to inform the proposed design. Strategies derived from analysis and researches are applied to the design of three existing courtyards on the University of Manitoba campus. The design intends to improve the quality of these spaces with the awareness of Winnipeg's local climate and their functionality in a campus environment. / May 2017

This research is an effort to revive the use of courtyard housing clusters in a modern context, which were traditionally known for their distinctive passive cooling performance. The goal is to promote energy efficient design in hot-arid climates and temperate climates by reviving the use of courtyard housing clusters. The objective is to introduce a simplified thermal model that simulates the courtyard microclimate, which has been tested with actual field data from a case study house. The case study house was an indigenous courtyard house in Cairo, Egypt that was built around 1400 AD, having an area of about 5000 sq. ft. (i.e., comparable to the size of a single-family house) with heavy thermal mass. To accomplish this, a finite difference thermal network model was created for simulating the case study courtyard microclimate. The finite difference (FD) model showed validity as it calibrated very well against field data. This model allowed running parametric sensitivity studies on the courtyard thermal simulation factors: air change rates, thermal mass, solar absorption, wall and floor emissivity, ground temperature, cloud cover, and ambient air temperature. The results of the parametric analysis showed that the model was sensitive to variations in the air change rates, solar absorptivity, and ambient air (rooftop) temperatures. The courtyard microclimate model was then used in combination with thermal simulation software (DOE-2) to analyze the thermal performance of the case study house, which was also validated with measured field data. The DOE-2 program showed limitations when applied to the case study, non-conditioned building, and showed a convergence deficiency when simulating high thermal mass buildings. The DOE-2 program did not perform well in simulating the impact of changes in thermal mass as compared to previous published field measurements. The proposed combinations of the FD microclimate/DOE-2 simulation did not perform as well as the FD microclimate simulation. The FD courtyard microclimate simulation model with onsite data for calibration is advantageous in introducing for the first time the ability to perform computer simulations on any number of proposed courtyard design alternatives for reaching optimum thermal performance.