Inner courtyards and gardens can provide many benefits, such as natural light, better ventilation, and increased contact with nature without losing privacy.
Inner courtyards are areas that are open to the sky and located in the center of a building, partially or wholly surrounded by walls or terraces. These areas can play a vital role in the layout of a house.
Sometimes inner courtyards may act as a kind of lung for the surrounding rooms; in other cases, they may function as guides to create passages, connecting and organizing the communal and private areas of the house.
Here is a selection of ten houses in Ecuador that explore courtyards or inner gardens as a structuring element of the project.
Quinta López Cordero / Astudillo + Proaño (in Spanish)
- Location: Cañar, Ecuador
- Year: 2011
Cotacachi House / Arquitectura X
- Location: Cotacachi, Ecuador
- Year: 2012
Loma House / Iván Quizhpe Arquitectos
- Location: Cuenca, Ecuador
- Year: 2013
JS-DM House / Diez+Muller Arquitectos (in Spanish)
- Location: Tumbaco, Ecuador
- Year: 2013
House on a Ravine / Diez + Muller Arquitectos (in Spanish)
- Location: Quito, Ecuador
- Year: 2017
Tacuri House / Gabriel Rivera Arquitectos
- Location: Quito, Ecuador
- Year: 2017
The House of Silence / Natura Futura Arquitectura
- Location: Quevedo, Ecuador
- Year: 2019
House Among Trees / El Sindicato Arquitectura
- Location: Quito, Ecuador
- Year: 2019
House in La Marca / Marco Salazar Valle
- Location: Quito, Ecuador
- Year: 2019
6M House / Jannina Cabal
- Location: Samborondón, Ecuador
- Year: 2019
- Related article:
Houses with Side Patios: Bountiful Natural Light and Ventilation
Check out more indoor courtyards in Brazil, projects in Mexico that merge the interior with the exterior, as well as other houses in Ecuador.
