#courtyard-house-tradition

#courtyard-house-tradition

Bergs Potter takes the cake for me, closely followed by the majolica-like planters at Williams-Sonoma and a few stylish designs from Ferm Living and Pottery Barn. These planters lean home decor over plastic planters, making them weather-resistant, durable pieces even on a wind-whipped balcony or hurricane-sacked home garden.

When you design your home with intentionality, you are essentially 'hard-coding' healthy behaviors into your daily rhythm. Health outcomes are the result of thousands of micro-decisions—so in his own home, he prioritized spaces like the kitchen, whose open layout makes cooking a pleasure, and the gym, centrally located.

We have deployed several types of cooling systems here, each one used depending on climatic conditions. The system, created millennia ago but updated for the 21st century, works by cooling water underground in the naturally low temperatures at night. To cool water more quickly, some is also sent to the roof via solar-powered pumps and sprayed out of nozzles in a thin layer through a method known as a falling film, before draining back down underground.

Set within the dense fabric of a bustling urban neighbourhood and constrained by a modest 4,000 sq. ft. plot, Jali House reimagines the potential of urban residential architecture.

Instead of functioning as decorative greenery, the courtyard organizes circulation, gathering spaces, and planting into a three-dimensional landscape where residents can move, pause, and interact. The site presented several typical urban challenges. Tall buildings restricted sunlight and views, while circulation routes occupied much of the available ground area, making open space feel narrow and shaded.

The design of this pantheon challenges the classic structures aiming to host the eternity. Unlike the traditional pantheons in the area, this project full of meaning and coherence balances unusual materials within the traditional enclave in the Requena cemetery.

Set within a large agricultural garden in a coastal village near Lezhë, Albania, Red House by Pacarizi Studio explores how a single-family dwelling can respond to changing social structures, climatic conditions, and local building cultures. Designed by Gezim Pacarizi, the 350-square-meter home is organized around an open, partially covered courtyard with a pool at its center. The project approaches domestic architecture as a sequence of perceptual experiences shaped by light, movement, and framing, an idea articulated by the architects themselves. 'What you see through a window can be a landscape, a tree, or architecture itself,' they note.

Peacock Ha'il is a project by Movs Studio located in Ha'il, Saudi Arabia, within an evolving urban context shaped by new construction and prominent geological formations. The site originally consisted of an unfinished structure positioned directly beside a tall formation, which became a defining condition for the project and a central design constraint. Rather than treating the rock as a backdrop or decorative feature, the design integrates it into the architectural logic of the café.

Leisure spaces are often where different generations cross paths. Without formal programs or assigned roles, they allow people to move, pause, and remain together, each engaging space in their own way. In a built environment increasingly shaped by specialization and separation, these shared spatial grounds have become less common, giving leisure-oriented architecture a renewed relevance. Discussions around public space have repeatedly pointed to the value of openness and flexibility in supporting collective life.

A lightweight, 3D printed and textile roof protects the Tombs of Postumio and Tres Puertas at the Archaeological Complex of Carmona in Seville, rethinking how contemporary architecture can engage with heritage conservation. The project by Juan Carlos Gómez de Cózar and Manuel Ordóñez Martín introduces a single canopy that covers both Roman tombs while operating as an environmental machine designed to stabilize their long-term preservation.

Designed by Habitat Architects, the Solan Hill House is a private residence embedded into a sloping site in Himachal Pradesh, conceived as an architecture that grows out of its terrain rather than resting on it. Completed as a response to complex gradients, access conditions, and visual exposure, the project uses the landscape itself as a generator of form, structure, and spatial sequence.

Ba-rro: "Our starting point is always the context and what already exists." We are interested in recognizing the value of things simply because they are there, without assuming that everything must be preserved as a matter of principle. The question isn't what can be kept, but what deserves to be kept in each specific project. The decision to preserve, reveal, or remove doesn't stem from universal values or a nostalgic impulse, but from a situated interpretation:

The project responds to a series of site-specific conditions, including exposure to wind, sun, and the absence of a dedicated outdoor room. Located adjacent to an architect-designed house with a restrained internal layout, the pavilion offers an additional space without altering the existing domestic interior. Positioned as an intermediary element, it operates as a threshold between the private realm of the house and the open landscape beyond.

In Manisa, western Turkey, the Liberation Museum by Yalin Architectural Design is a memory space shaped by absence, loss, and collective resilience. Developed for the Greater City Municipality of Manisa, the 3,800-square-meter project narrates the local civil resistance movement that emerged independently of central authority between 1918 and 1923, during and after the First World War. The museum is conceived as an experiential landscape, guiding visitors through a spatial narrative of occupation, destruction, liberation, and rebuilding.

Once a Najdi settlement defined by mudbrick walls and courtyard houses, Riyadh has undergone one of the most radical urban transformations of the 20th and 21st centuries. The discovery of oil reserves, the consolidation of political power, and the rapid expansion of infrastructure reshaped the city from a regional capital into a sprawling metropolis almost within a single generation. As a result, Riyadh's urban fabric is marked by discontinuities, fragments of vernacular architecture coexist with mid-century institutional modernism, and a rapidly evolving contemporary skyline.

Casa La Vista is a residential project by MEDEZA CDQ and VERTEBRAL located on a cliff within the desert landscape of Baja California Sur, . Positioned among dunes and overlooking the coastline of San José and Punta Gorda, the house is oriented toward the southeast to frame the horizon where sea and sky meet. The project responds to the region's extreme climatic conditions through a spatial and tectonic strategy that prioritizes orientation, shading, and material performance.