Courtyard in Contemporary Multi-Unit Housing: Residential Quality with Sustainability and Sense of Community

Abstract

Courtyard is an important element, a representation of success in social sustainability and architectural quality. The philosophy of courtyard within the urban fabric is an expression of cohesion and community. While courtyard typology sustains in some urban patterns with an adaptation, this continuum has not been achieved in some contexts. Vernacular architecture had to face several challenges and courtyard typology was replaced with profitable mass housing without previous spatial codes at the expense of the human needs and values that guide design decisions. In this context, this paper aims to provide sustainability of the courtyard in contemporary housing with an adaptation such as after-war Syria redevelopment in order to provide a socio-spatial quality and sustainability. The study reviews the sense of courtyard for residential areas and examines the reasons for the absence of this element in contemporary multi-unit housing. Moreover, this study analyses housing examples with courtyard from different periods of Vienna with cause-effect relationship. The study concludes that Vienna has provided a wealth of innovative experimentations of courtyard in contemporary housing successfully which can lead new housing dynamics in urban contexts such as Syria.

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