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Courtyards have been an integral component of dwelling typology from the first human civilisations, whether it be the Indus Valley, Egyptian, Mesopotamian or Chinese. Houses in those eras were characterised by deep long houses, compact with three edges shared with adjoining homes. While this arrangement allowed optimal use of land and higher densities, it deprived the inner spaces of light and ventilation. As a result, internal courtyards came to be adopted as an inherent dimension to house typology.

Courtyards provide open-to-sky, outdoor space away from the public eye. Family activities can spill out, yet remain protected from the outside world. The space became an apt, socio-cultural congruent providing ground space for the family, especially women and children to carry out daily chores and festive celebrations. The central void became a connecting volume between floors with visual, audio and physical link maintaining a rapport with vertically segregated floors.

Apart from socio-cultural appropriateness, courts are the most effective tools for maintaining environmental balance in the house. They are a successful climactic feature to ventilate the house. Hot air, by convective principles, rises and escapes the house through court. Apart from evacuation of the hot air, it also creates draft of air by providing pressure difference and inducing inward draft of cool air through lower level Jaali windows.

Centrally located, a courtyard provides ventilation to innermost rooms even on the ground floor. As a vertical shaft connecting to the open sky, it pours in cheerful light into inner rooms. All the spaces of the house remain well-lighted with natural light, not depending upon on artificial lights during daytime.

Court allows for light without bringing in the glare or the haze. Sun beams are received on the side walls of the court shaft and reflected; diffused light illuminates the space cutting out the glare. This is why proportion of a courtyard is important. Height-to-width ratio of the court is very critical in environmental management of the house. Cubical proportion courts with heights same as the width or taller upto three times its width are found efficient with respect to mutual shading for the sun. Too tall courts remain like shafts and lose their scale to afford sense of outdoor space and effective management of light and air. Too shallow courts also do not perform climatically as they lose out on the system of sun shading with higher ingress of direct sun within in a hot dry climate. This is why every aperture within built fabric or every house with a hole does not qualify to be the courtyard. Court is an integral system of built, of light, air, sun and vegetation.

Courtyards, all across India, are a generic element found in dwelling forms with subtle variations of its geographical contexts. Houses in hot, yet humid, regions around Konkan and southern parts of the country have shallower courts to allow for breeze and movement of air. At the same time, courts in hot and dry regions of north India are taller than the cube to increase efficiency of mutual shading. Even palaces and larger Havelis do not have larger courts for grandeur but have multiple small courts instead. In humid climate courts enlarge vertically with receeding built mass on upper floors while in drier climes, the vertical shaft tapers inwardly to retard the harsh sun. Even in Bohra community homes, they taper inwardly to enhance sense of privacy within.

Thus, courts are of a significant functional value, socially, culturally and environmentally. No wonder they are also associated with spiritual and metaphysical overtones. Courts are sanctified with sacred functions attached to them such as worship places, kitchen or dining. Chinese word for court literally translates to 'well to heaven'. Often adorned with a Tulsi plant or shrine, courtyards in India and the holy plant are seen as an eternal bindu-brahmsthan from which all energy emanates.

Contrary to all this, most offices, hotels or malls today depend on artificial lights even in broad day light due to closed interior environment. We are paying the consequences of the same, climatically as well as culturally.

The author is a city-based architect and historian