Small Courtyard Research Articles

SOLWEIG 1.0 – Modelling spatial variations of 3D radiant fluxes and mean radiant temperature in complex urban settings

The mean radiant temperature, T(mrt), which sums up all shortwave and longwave radiation fluxes (both direct and reflected) to which the human body is exposed is one of the key meteorological parameters governing human energy balance and the thermal comfort of man. In this paper, a new radiation model (SOLWEIG 1.0), which simulates spatial variations of 3D radiation fluxes and T(mrt) in complex urban settings, is presented. The T(mrt) is derived by modelling shortwave and longwave radiation fluxes in six directions (upward, downward and from the four cardinal points) and angular factors. The model requires a limited number of inputs, such as direct, diffuse and global shortwave radiation, air temperature, relative humidity, urban geometry and geographical information (latitude, longitude and elevation). The model was evaluated using 7 days of integral radiation measurements at two sites with different building geometries--a large square and a small courtyard in Göteborg, Sweden (57 degrees N)--across different seasons and in various weather conditions. The evaluation reveals good agreement between modelled and measured values of T(mrt), with an overall good correspondence of R (2) = 0.94, (p < 0.01, RMSE = 4.8 K). SOLWEIG 1.0 is still under development. Future work will incorporate a vegetation scheme, as well as an improvement of the estimation of fluxes from the four cardinal points.

Measurements of indoor thermal environment of the traditional town houses with small courtyard in San-in area in summer

Measurements of indoor thermal environment of the traditional town houses with small courtyard in San-in area in summer

The Archaeology of Beirut: A Report on Work in the Insula of the House of the Fountains

This insula, which lay on the western margin of the earlier Iron Age city, was uncovered during post-war reconstruction work carried out in Beirut during 1994–6. Laid out in the Hellenistic period, the insula was filled out with a series of small courtyard houses after the Roman annexation. A public portico was added along a main street in the second quarter of the second century, before a period of relative inactivity. The district was revived and rebuilt in the middle of the fourth century and was home to a series of handsome town houses in the fifth century, before being devastated by earthquake in AD 551. The site was then left derelict until the early nineteenth century. This interim report sets these findings within their broader historical and archaeological context, as well as summarizing the results of recent work on the site's ceramics and stratigraphy.

Digital canopy: high-end computation/low-tech construction

The design and construction of this canopy and landscape for a small courtyard [1] took the form of an adventure in digital design and low-tech construction. The installation was for the end of year party in June 2002 at the Academie van Bouwkunst in Amsterdam. The courtyard occupies a central space in the school adjacent to the main lecture hall and contains a historic cobblestone court [2]. One of the design team, Neil Leach, proposed that it should be transformed into an enchanted garden suggestive of Dutch greenhouses and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Virtuality and Performativity: Recreating Rome's Theatre of Pompey

1 TT7 alk through the narrow streets from the ancient temples in Largo X/I Argentina to the open-air market in Campo dei Fiori, enjoying the characteristic Roman patchwork of architectural gems and mediocrities as you go. At the near end of the Campo, the seventeenth-century fasade of the Palazzo Pio juts out (Plate 1), overshadowing a small courtyard to one side. Entering this courtyard you go past Pancrazio's Restaurant, then follow the dark, covered passageway down a slight incline until you emerge into a sunlit street where the buildings curve around on either side in a wide crescent of faded Renaissance elegance (Plate 2). Taking out your guidebook, you discover that you are standing in the auditorium of the Theatre of Pompey-the largest and one of the most historically important and architecturally influential theatres ever built.

A MEMORABLE EVENT

The following story comes from the recently published memoirs of Mr John Boyd, Behind a Surgeon's Mask. Sir Ian Fraser and I visited BMA House where he was particularly well known, being a past president of that organisation. On our way into this modern looking building Sir Ian was commenting on some of its special features. As we passed through a small courtyard he talked for a short time about a very ordinary looking fish pond which contained some ordinary looking fish. Eventually he spotted something which …

開放系住居の夏の環境特性 : 町家の冷気積層型の上方開放空間

There are two types of traditional wooden house "Noka" and "Machiya" in Japan, which have many wisdoms to make them cool in hot and humid summer. The purpose of this study is to find out the mechanism and seek the way to apply them to the modern house which has thick insulation. Although the large horizontal openings and cross ventilation are the distinctive thermal features of Noka in rural area together with thick thatched roof, deep eaves and naked earth floor, it is not practical to apply them to the modern house in a city. On the other hand the typical town house Machiya, which is the subject of this study is characterized by its vertical openings. Although the Machiya had been built very closely to each other, facing to the paved street and surrounded by roof tiles under the burning sun, there are also found refreshing soft winds in their living spaces. The authors tried to find out the cause of this attractive mechanisms with careful observations, inquiries and physical measurement. The results are as follows ; *A typical Machiya house has two gardens ; small court yard "Tsubo-niwa" and back yard "Ura-niwa" at the both ends of living spaces. *The living spaces are open to these closed yards which are open to the sky. *Living spaces are shaded to the sun by deep eaves, straw blinds and dense trees in the yard. So the living spaces are dark in the day time. *Common walls between the two houses and store rooms on the upper floor isolate the heat from outside as if they had thik insulation. *Warmed air is removed naturally upward through both yards and "Tori-niwa" which is a passage of high ceiling with the opening at the top. *Cooled air from the naked ground at the yards and crawl space under the floor fill the living space like a pool. *In spite of heated breeze on the roof, its fluctuations induce delicate change of air pressure difference between two yards and brings ever changing swings of cool air in the living spaces. Although the Machiya has no insulation at all, it has the same thermal characteristics as the insulated houses at least in summer. This idea of upward opening gives an important suggestion on natural cooling of insulated houses even in cold region.

Climatic change after regeneration in the oldest quarter of Heidelberg

During the last 100 years, the urban cores have been gradually built up in increasing density, so that the sun does not reach the lower windows of the houses. In the small courtyards, the air stays cool in the morning and mild at night; the wind is light or calm, the climate is described as a basement climate here. Ten courtyards in the oldest part of Heidelberg were studied. Winter temperatures were milder than those measured near the roof; in the daytime the average difference was 2.5 K and in the night 4 K, even in abandoned, unheated houses. Summer afternoons were uncomfortably hot. Some of the courtyards were reinvestigated after the renewal programme. Most of the outhouses and sheds had been torn down in order to extend the court and to allow trees to be planted. Following the renewal programme, solar radiation penetrates to the ground, temperatures are higher, and night temperatures cooler; the time lag is shorter than before. The temperature of the court approaches that measured near the roof by 1–2 K. One of the goals, to increase ventilation, was achieved only to a certain degree, so that the average wind velocity in the courtyard increased from 45 to 55% of that measured at roof level. There could have been more success if the ring of structures had been opened at two or more gateways. In this case, not only the wind would have gained access to the court, but also the noise from the street.

Discussion On Fire Characteristics Of Dwellings With A Small Courtyard

In order to probe the function of the small courtyard during fire, studies and fire tests in a real dwelling building and an analog building with a small courtyard have been carried out in China. The preliminary conclusions are: 1. The small courtyard in dwelling building can play a valuable part in ventilating smoke and heat. When the building is on fire, the small courtyard will be helpful to evacuating residents and extinguishing fire by fire-fighters. 2. The horizontal distance between any two windows in the courtyard should not be less than 3.3 meters. The paper provides theoretically the detailed analysis of the above conclusions and test data in many aspects. These data have been provided as a valuable reference for the Code of Fire-Prevention in Building Design.

Halls or Yards? A Problem of Villa Interpretation

Professor Branigan, in his recent article ‘Villa Settlement in the West Country’, interprets the plans of six British villas as a series of rooms ranged around a small courtyard which he calls an intra-mural yard. They will be discussed later; for the moment it is enough to point out that no evidence is adduced in support of the interpretation. Branigan, however, not content to leave the matter there, goes on to say that the intra-mural yard is ‘a design which is common among the smaller villas in northern Gaul’ and points to six plans in support of this notion. Again, no evidence is offered. Now what is so astonishing is that three of the villas cited as evidence for this bland statement were interpreted as hall-type villas in 1921 by Franz Oelmann in the classic article which established the existence of the type, and have been so regarded ever since. The reversion to the orthodoxy of nearly sixty years ago is not defended, Oelmann's arguments are not refuted, nor does his article even appear in the bibliography; we are expected to take Branigan's word that it is so. For all that there are no arguments to attack, the point at issue is of such fundamental importance for villa studies in all the northern provinces that I propose to pass in review the essential facts on which judgement has to be based.

Ardrossan Castle, Ayrshire: a preliminary account

NS 232422. The 13th-century castle had a small courtyard entered through a gatehouse with vaulted cellars to one side. The gatehouse was rebuilt, then refloored and the doorway narrowed and eventually blocked to convert it into a tower-house in late 14th century. A new entrance may have been made on the other side of the castle, with keyhole gunports in the wall; 16th-century mouthed gunports were added. A grave-slab was re-used as a lintel to an underground passage leading out to a well. Since the castle is first recorded in 1484, its purpose is considered in terms of local history and the genealogy of the holders of Ardrossan. D F R

The West Court at Perachora

About 10 metres south-west of the sixth-century temple of Hera Akraia at Perachora, and nearly due west of the little harbour lies the small courtyard previously known as the ‘Agora’. Since its purpose is not known, it will here be non-committally referred to as the West Court. It was first excavated in 1932, and more fully, under the supervision of J. K. Brock, in 1933, but it was not entirely cleared until 1939, and it was at that time that the Roman house which stood in the middle of the court was demolished. The West Court is discussed briefly (under the name of ‘Agora’) in Perachora 1 and in the preliminary reports of the Perachora excavations. Short supplementary excavations were carried out in 1964 and 1966 to examine certain points of the structure.In shape the West Court is an irregular pentagon, about 24 metres from north to south and the same from east to west (Fig. 1; Plate 91 a, b). It is enclosed on the west, north, and on part, at least, of the east side by a wall of orthostates on an ashlar foundation. For a short distance on either side of the south corner, the court is bounded by a vertically dressed rock face which is extended to the north-east and west by walls of polygonal masonry. At the south-west corner the west orthostate wall butts against the polygonal wall, which continues for about 0·80 m. beyond it and then returns north for about 8 metres behind it.