Courtyard and terrace in Baku: landscape is not décor, it is the house continued

Villa talk in Baku often ends in the living room; the yard becomes “the gardener later.” Then the terrace opens west and cannot be sat in summer; rain pools under the threshold; the fence is pretty to the street and a prison inside. Landscape is not a decorative plant list. It is the house’s open room: arrival, car, child, guest evening, drying, waste. This note takes villa design and functional planning across the threshold.

Wind and sun choose the sitting place

Caspian wind empties an open terrace. Unshaded west stone burns in summer. A working yard is not one big plaza: a corner cut from wind, shade in summer, sun in winter. Sometimes a small north terrace works harder than a large west deck. Plants here are microclimate, not fashion.

Water, cars and waste must work without showing off

• Rain out of the house and off the fence — not a garden lake.
• Turning and guest parking must not eat the yard.
• Waste, gas, AC blocks — hidden but reachable.
• Fence: street face and neighbour view are separate decisions.
• Light: path and sitting at different levels, without turning the façade into a billboard.

Pool first, water path later does not work

A pool picture is easy. Chemicals, wind splash, child safety and a winter cover are the cost. On a small plot one shaded seat serves the house more than a pool. At Raul Architects we do not assemble the open land after the façade; it is on the first sheet of the plan.

The same rule in a complex

In a residential complex the courtyard leaves the marketing lawn when wind corridors, children’s path and cars are separated. That is the yard scale of urban planning. On a private plot the same reading: if the land is small, every square metre must do a job.