Courtyard housing in North America: Chinese design for health and happiness

Abstract

Health and happiness are fundamental to human quality of life. The Healthy Cities or Happy Cities movement has been endorsed by the WHO since 1986, and a Healthy House or Happy Home is a critical component of a healthy city or a happy city. Nevertheless, the concept has not been fully explored. Existing literature on the healthy house has often focused on the technical, economic, environmental or biochemical aspects, while current scholarship on the happy home commonly centers on interior decoration. Using both qualitative and quantitative evidence gathered from ethnic Chinese living in the United States and Canada, this article proposes that the Courtyard is a central element to promote social and cultural health and happiness of residents. It further presents four courtyard garden house design models that combine a sense of privacy with a feeling of community as represented in courtyard housing. The schemes may have universal implications.