The origin of interior courtyards dates back several years, serving as a means of shelter, security, and protection, while also aiming to achieve comfort and well-being through exterior elements. In contemporary housing, a wide range of possibilities is deployed, capable of accommodating various uses and activities that foster the relationship between the interior and exterior environment. Furthermore, notions of energy efficiency, thermal regulation, ventilation, and natural lighting are incorporated, among others.
The design of interior courtyards involves considering factors such as the site location, surrounding vegetation, climatic conditions, solar orientation, and other factors specific to each particular geographic area. Although Spain has a heterogeneity and climatic diversity comprised of Atlantic, Mediterranean, subtropical, and mountain climates, interior courtyards can adopt different characteristics, arrangements, and architectural principles. However, as a common denominator, they are usually surrounded by walls, enclosures, circulation areas, or galleries, acting as space articulators or becoming the heart of homes.
Below, we present 10 houses in Spain whose interior patios provide ventilation and natural lighting, incorporating uses and activities in direct relation to the environment and the nature that surrounds them.
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Structural Details As Seen in CourtyardsWiik House / DTR_studio
- Location: Estepona, Spain
- Year: 2022
"The project is organized around the interior courtyards and the roof. It is a design inspired by Arab architecture, where the protagonist will be the paths. It is an architecture that needs to be lived, inhabited, and walked. The use of light, water, and vegetation will be the tools that give meaning to the project.
Blurring the boundaries between inside and outside, taking advantage of the benign climate of the Costa del Sol, and reaffirming the commitment to Mediterranean vernacular architecture, will be the axes of the intervention."
Learn more about this project here.
Happy House in Begur / SALA FERUSIC Architects
- Location: Begur, Girona, Spain
- Year: 2022
[…] "The architectural design is based on criteria of sustainability and integration with its immediate surroundings, seeking continuity with the terrain and landscape from a conception of maximum energy efficiency and low carbon footprint.
The building takes the street level as its crowning reference point and continues the landscape through a rooftop garden that gently descends to traverse the different levels of the terrain. It is a pedestrian journey where views of the cove and native vegetation accompany the passerby to the entrance door of the dwelling, encompassing a courtyard located at the heart of the house."
Learn more about this project here.
Red House / Aramé Studio
- Location: Barcelona, Spain
- Year: 2022
"The project is based on the symbiosis of two main concepts:
- Maintaining the essence and character of the industrial landscape of the neighborhood by recognizing the spatial and material characteristics of the existing building.
- Introducing the typology of the Patio House, typical of Mediterranean culture, where the house revolves around the outdoor space, which becomes the main center of the dwelling.
[…] All the rooms of the interior living space revolve around the patio, which acts as the core of the house—a "green" oasis that provides light, ventilation, and nature to the home."
Learn more about this project here.
House AS / Ábaton
- Location: Madrid, Spain
- Year: 2021
[…] "The entrance to the house is through a covered platform that rises above the ground. This provides access to a foyer where the central protagonist is a courtyard that functions as the core around which the common spaces revolve. This courtyard is entirely glazed, visually connecting all the surrounding spaces. It is designed to remain open during the months of mild weather, replacing circulation around the courtyard with pathways through it. It also serves to ventilate the house during the night while the perimeter remains closed, ensuring the security of the home. On the southern side of this courtyard is the dining area, connected to a large window that, due to its orientation and size, casts indirect, intense, and constant light over the dining zone."
Learn more about this project here.
Rambla Climate-House / Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation
- Location: Molina de Segura, Spain
- Year: 2021
"The Rambla Climate-House functions as a climatic and ecological device that is part of a series of associative initiatives, developed at the scale of independent citizens, to contribute to the repair of the environmental and climatic damage caused by the over-urbanization of Molina de Segura [...]
Through Netrode sensors of humidity and conductivity, an automated meteorology system is activated that escapes human control and aims to provide the necessary conditions for the biological repair of the ravine (rambla). The house is organized around the ellipse that contains this fragment of the ravine, acting as an observatory in alliance with the landscape reconstruction. Typologically, it is organized as a ring of continuous spaces with varying widths.
Learn more about this project here.
Courtyard House / A3gm Arquitectos
- Location: Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain
- Year: 2021
[…] "The simple starting volume - a prism punctured by an interior courtyard - becomes more complex due to the combination of the program and the roof. The house thus becomes an aggregation of pieces with different characteristics, organized around the courtyard. The traditional use of sloping tiled roofs that slope towards the courtyard creates a contrast between the scale and regularity of the facades that enclose it and the exterior facades, which have varying heights and more complex geometries, responding to the different depth development of the pieces."
Learn more about this project here.
Casa Margarita / Sebastián Arquitectos
- Location: Calatayud, Spain
- Year: 2021
"The project creates a 700 m2 courtyard house developed on the surface over two floors, like an inhabited tapestry, and oriented towards the interior of the plot through a system of different fractionated courtyards that relate to the house's section. Like a string of petals, these courtyards serve domestic spaces, modifying their appearance, dimension, character, and vegetation based on the use and privacy of the room they open to.
The courtyard is configured as an integral part of the house that, once protected from the street, can freely open to these domesticated outdoor spaces.
[…] Regarding the outdoor spaces, the various garden courtyards extend the interior alignments of the house, extending with paved or landscaped surfaces. Some of the courtyards descend or have skylights to introduce light, ventilation, and the sound of fountains into the basement."
Learn more about this project here.
House Between Party Walls / Ansede Quintáns, arquitectos
- Location: Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- Year: 2020
"The courtyard on the first floor becomes the absolute protagonist of the new house. What the four-year-old daughter of the family likes the most is that in the middle of her living room there is a garden. This seems to us to be the best definition of this courtyard, which is the binding element of all the common areas."
Learn more about this project here.
Costacabana Houses / med.arquitectos
- Location: Costacabana, Spain
- Year: 2020
"Since we are on the edge of the neighborhood, the immediate surroundings do not invite contemplation. Therefore, an intimate project is sought, with houses that look inward, fostering family life around the interior courtyards and towards our own architecture. However, upon reaching the rooftop solarium, we will enjoy a large open space with views of Cabo de Gata.
Thus, the Costacabana Houses are developed around courtyards, with the more public uses placed on the perimeter, creating natural barriers that protect the living rooms from any connection with the street while also opening them up to the internal courtyards."
Learn more about this project here.
Era House / Palera Arquitectos
- Location: Los Menas, Spain
- Year: 2020
[…] "The main concern of the young homeowners was to have outdoor space with total privacy. Due to this need, the decision was made to invert the common situation in the rest of the town, where houses are aligned and open to the streets. The concept of the traditional "era" (a courtyard-like space) typical of the area is reinterpreted, creating one inside that is exclusively enjoyed by the inhabitants of the house. This "era" influences the interior circulation of the house, creating a circular route that divides the program into two halves: the day area and the night area, laterally connected by two hybrid spaces. These spaces serve as a general dressing area for the bedrooms and a multipurpose room that can function as an exterior porch in summer, an auxiliary living room, a game room, or a library. At the same time, the central open space allows for alternative transversal routes that ensure natural cross-ventilation. When the weather is nice, it becomes the main social space of the house and can be used as an outdoor cinema."
Learn more about this project here.
* The texts are descriptions sent by the authors of the projects.
