Rediscovery of the Courtyard, as a Major Intangible Cultural Heritage

Abstract

The radical and huge scale changes in the island of Cyprus, especially of the last century, resulted in a significant disruption with the social and cultural heritage. The paper will focus on the Courtyards as an indispensable part of the intangible cultural heritage which carries invaluable ‘wisdoms’ stemming out form the rich history of the island, the climatic and topographical conditions, but decapitated due to the modernization brought by the British colonization and the well rooted enforcement of the urban regulations of the young government. More specifically it will concentrate on ways and mechanisms of not only how to revive this intangible architectural quality, but rather to evolve it in order to generate new spatial typologies responding to the social and cultural changes in relation to their new organizational and functional requirements.