Courtyards: Intimate Outdoor Spaces

Courtyards: Intimate Outdoor Spaces by Douglas Keister

When the outside meets the inside, a courtyard is born, and whether defined by tropical plants and a low stone wall, or a burbling fountain and modern sculpture, each one has the ability to delight our senses. Long associated with comfort and security, courtyards have been an important architectural element for thousands of years, and today these indoor/outdoor spaces are more popular than ever.

Courtyards takes you on a journey across the globe, looking at all kinds of courtyards and exploring their fascinating history. Courtyards can be adapted to almost any space, large or small, and the variations in greenery, stonework, water elements and lighting are endless. Classic Courtyards is perfect for homeowners looking to remodel, add something extra to the landscape, or simply modify an existing space, and this book, with its beautiful color photos and helpful advice, is sure to inspire anyone looking to create a unique place of solitude and serenity.

Douglas Keister has photographed more than twenty-five critically acclaimed books. He also writes and illustrates magazine articles and contributes photographs and essays to dozens of magazines, newspapers, books, calendars, posters and greeting cards worldwide. Some of his books include Classic Cottages, Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography, Ready to Roll, A Travel Trailer, Red Tile Style, The Bungalow, and Victorian Glory. Keister lives in Chico, California, with his wife Sandy Schweitzer.

Few architectural elements are more closely associated with comfort, protection, and security than the courtyard-an outdoor living space that is partially or fully enclosed by walls or buildings. The courtyard became a major architectural design element almost as soon humans began constructing permanent buildings.

Scholars tell us that courtyards have been around since at least 3000 b.c. The earliest civilizations in China, the Middle East, and North Africa all had courtyards. Protection was the primary function of these early courtyards, with high walls providing a shield from the weather and a barrier to marauding animals and unwanted human visitors. In later western culture, the requirements of a courtyard were looser, and any area that was partially or entirely enclosed by walls or buildings could be called a courtyard.

Today, defining a courtyard seems to depend on the elements it contains and the feelings it evokes rather than the architecture that surrounds it. The basic elements of a courtyard have always been water, walls, and sky combined to convey qualities of intimacy, security, and quiet.

Chico, California-based photographer Douglas Keister has photographed twenty-two award-winning, critically acclaimed books. His seventeen books on architecture include four books on Victorian homes (Daughter's of Painted Ladies, Painted Ladies Revisited, America's Painted Ladies and Victorian Glory); three books on bungalow homes (The Bungalow, Inside the Bungalow and Outside the Bungalow), a book on 1920s whimsical homes (Storybook Style) a book about cemetery art and architecture (Going Out in Style), a book on Spanish architecture, (Red Tile Style), six books on bungalow details and Classic Cottages, that will be published by Gibbs Smith Publisher in the Spring of 2004. Keister photographed and wrote an award winning children's book (Fernando's Gift), has two monographs of his personal work (Black Rock and Driftwood Whimsy), a book on classic travel trailers, (Ready to Roll) and a book on cemetery symbolism, Stories in Stone: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Cemetery Symbolism, that will be published by Gibbs Smith Publisher in the Spring of 2004. His wealth of books on architecture has earned him the title, "America's most noted photographer of historic architecture."