A Comparative Study of Mediterranean Courtyard Houses and the Bioclimate Impact on Their Design from Four Axes: Historical, Environmental, Social and Geometry

Abstract

As a result of the many efforts made in recent decades to implement bioclimatic criteria and passive house models in Mediterranean areas, traditional architectural typologies can play a role in the contemporary environmental architectural framework. The interactive and adaptive relationship between climate, site, and building is a fundamental rule in the climate-responsive approach to reducing environmental impacts. Lately, this idea has been extended to include protecting the cultural identities of places. Many cases in the Mediterranean Basin show that conventional courtyard houses can provide high adaptability, sustainability, and functionality. Mediterranean courtyard houses are founded on a set of adaptable and sustainable standards derived from a combination of active and passive design approaches. This paper presents a comparative study of courtyard houses in five Mediterranean countries: Spain, Türkiye, Greece, Libya, and Palestine, addressing four areas of interest: history, environment, society and geometry. Considering the bioclimatic approach as a critical component in reorienting the construction process, the study’s goal is to compare and evaluate the inner courtyards of these Mediterranean countries, analysing the most important constant factors and modification paths. The study concludes that the courtyard morphology is a shared human legacy with a past and future as it meets its inhabitants’ physical and sociocultural requirements. Furthermore, despite the differences in some aspects, courtyard houses were constructed throughout the Mediterranean with a common meaning of heaven on earth; this could imply that the courtyard garden is the world’s meaning.