ABSTRACT
Courtyards have appeared as a spatial element across world cultures, in a wide range of building typologies like houses, forts, palaces, religious buildings like mosques, seminaries, and temples. Courtyards were common to dwellings throughout most of the Islamic world, owning as much to earlier living traditions and climate as to any specifically Muslim requirements. The courtyard is the internal contained world, often referred to as a room without a roof. Courtyards were a handy tool to make additions in a manner that each addition was a complete entity yet integrated within the rest of the palace. Through the day and through the year, the quality of light in the courtyard informs the inhabitants of the outside as they continue with work and leisure. By removing the courtyard from contemporary living, by massing the living environment, we have taken away that essential element which brings us in direct natural relation with the world beyond the built as part of daily life.
