ABSTRACT
There is a propensity to link urban production to the building/urban block dichotomy, a commonplace fuelled by the generalisation of two opposing trends about the city: those who follow it as an example and those who renounce it, pointing to the new urban dynamics supported by isolated units of collective housing.
This approach has delayed the appearance of others focused on the connections generated between both ideological sides, which are already crystallised in the city. This is especially understandable if we look at the influence of the courtyard in stimulating different ways of shaping and experiencing it.
The article looks at the city of Lisbon and the formal diversity of the most typical urban blocks in Avenidas neighbourhood to reveal the impact of the inner courtyard on the joint arrangement of different collective housing types, influencing both architectural forms and the organisation of domestic life.
The morphological decoding of each element, their structural relations and interactions over time allow us to stabilise in an ordained way the knowledge about the city's urban production, offering a framework of references to the contemporary urbanism.
