Courtyard Urbanism is a project by University of Hong Kong students Adrian Yee Cheung Lo, Ray Jiaheng Zhang, and Patricia Tung Yan Ng which was selected for the Gold prize at the IDesign Awards. The project aims to reinvent the traditional Chinese courtyards in a contemporary setting where density and increased building heights affect the social dynamic of residential architecture.
Read on for more on this project after the break.
By looking into three-dimensional systems for multi-leveled courtyard spaces, the design intends to provide the realization of a contemporary urban courtyard for cities facing challenges of density, sustainability and community reintegration. When density and height increases, courtyard spaces do not only evolve from horizontal in plan to vertical in section; they also transform from private to semi-public or public spaces.
While different hierarchies of layered courtyard spaces are generated for new urban conditions, critical issues of each condition are identified and reviewed: dimension, scale, lighting, ventilation, spatial quality and daily lives. Courtyard Urbanism proposes two design prototypes, which in form, look different, but are both embedded with a rich design philosophy consistent with the goals of the project. Both demonstrate the ideology and methodology behind the form by unfolding the structure and revealing the underlying continuous “street like” experience.
From court-yard to transitional space to courtyard to transitional space, etc. reisdents are encourgaed to explore the activity of each courtyard and to experience the movement through each transitional space. The courtyard thereby is detached from the ground-level urban fabric and re-forms the high-rise residential tower into the stacking of public courtyards rather than apartments.
