Ensemble and master plan
Block courtyard
housing complexurban blockcampusmixed-use buildinghotel
It is the open space left inside a block or a development when the buildings are arranged along its edge. It can be a garden, a vegetable plot, a play area or a passage shared by those who live and work around it.
What it solves
It gives each building a quiet second face, with light, air and a view of greenery, away from street noise. In the tropics its trees give shade, its soil absorbs rain and it works as a common room for children and older people.
Today
Keep the perimeter buildings narrow so each home or office faces both the street and the courtyard and air crosses it. Where possible, leave the courtyard ground without a basement below so large trees can grow and rain can soak in.
Common mistake
Filling the interior with storerooms, parking or extensions until the courtyard is lost and the block becomes a solid mass without air or shade.
Tomorrow
The block courtyard can be children’s nearby play area and a shaded refuge for older people in the hot hours. If neighbors share its care, it can also store rainwater and hold a vegetable garden and a shared compost.
Fact Barcelona aims for every Eixample resident to have a green area less than 200 meters from home, largely with block interiors open to the public.
Where it comes from
- 1Eixample of Barcelona Barcelona, Spain, 1860
Ildefons Cerdà proposed blocks with chamfered corners built on only two or three sides, with an inner garden to give sun and ventilation to all homes. - 2Social housing of Red Vienna Vienna, Austria, 1927 to 1930
Karl-Marx-Hof covered barely 18.5% of its site with buildings and left the rest in courtyards with gardens and playgrounds, surrounded by laundries, baths and nurseries. - 3Recovery of block interiors Barcelona, Spain, since 1987
The city began to open to the public the courtyards that time had filled with buildings and parking. Today the Eixample district has 45.
Masters
- Ildefons Cerdà Eixample of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 1860
He designed an entire city of blocks open on two or three sides, with a green center to give sun and air to every home. Although they were later closed, his idea guides the recovery of those courtyards today.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Ensemble and master plan
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.