Dwelling on Courtyards

Courtyards have been used for thousands of years in different climates in the world. In hot climates they provide shading, in humid climates they cause a stack effect helping ventilation, in cold climates they break cold winds and protect their microclimate. In temperate climates (such as of the Netherlands), the thermal behaviour of courtyards has been studied less. In this dissertation, low-rise residential courtyard buildings were therefore studied among (and along) different urban block types in the Netherlands.