The Courtyard as Climate Device

Question

How much passive cooling does a courtyard actually deliver compared to a sealed, mechanically-cooled equivalent floorplate?

Methodology

Temperature and airflow logging across four completed Edifice courtyard houses over a full dry-to-wet season cycle.

Observations

Courtyard-adjacent rooms averaged 4.2°C cooler at peak afternoon than street-facing rooms in the same buildings.

Findings

Courtyard depth-to-width ratio between 1:2 and 1:3 produced the most consistent stack-ventilation performance across all four sites.

Conclusion

The courtyard remains one of the highest-performing low-tech cooling strategies available in this climate, provided its proportions are tuned rather than assumed.