Acknowledgement Illustration credits Contributors Foreword -Courtyard: a typology that symbolises a culture Preface Part 1 History and theory 1 The courtyard house: typological variations over space and time Attilio Petrucdoli The shared characteristics of Iranian and Arab courtyard houses Cholamhossain Memarian and Frank Brown The courtyard houses of Syria E. Mahmoud Zien Al Abidin The courtyard houses of Southern Algeria Arrouf Abdelmalek The courtyard houses of North African mcdinas, past, present and future Magda Sibley Part 2 Social and cultural dimensions 6 The power of the veil: gender inequality in the domestic setting of traditional courtyard houses Rccm Zako 7 The role of privacy in the design of the Saudi Arabian courtyard house Omar S. RaHammam The traditional courtyard house of Kuwait and the influence of Islam M. Anwarul Islam and Nawal H. A!- nafi The cosmological genesis of Ihe courtyard house UJ3tn 10 The deconstructed courtyard: dwellings of central Oman Soumyvn Bandyopadhyay 11 The European perimeter block: the Scottish experience of courtyard housing Brian Edwards Part 3 Environmental dimensions 12 Courtyards: a bioclimaticform? Dana Raydan, Carlo Ratti and Koen Stccmers 13 The courtyard garden in the (raditional Arab house Maner Laffah 14 Climatic aspects and their effect on the dimensions of courtyards in Arab buildings Hani Wadah 15 The thermal performance of the internal courtyard in the hot-dry environment in Saudi Arabia Khalid A. Megren Al-Saud and NasscrA. M. AI-Hemiddi Part 4 The contemporary dimension 16 Type as a tool: courtyard housing and the notion of continuity Kevin Milchell 17 The geometry of single and multi-family courtyard housing Mohamad Hakmi 18 Courtyard housing in Saudi Arabia: in search of a contemporary typology Tarfik Abdelsalam 19 New design thinking for contemporary courtyard housing Yassine Bada Conclusion Courtyard housing: an 'afterthought' Peter Land Bibliography Glossary Index