Mountain Courtyard Block

Mountain Courtyard Block is an original illustration set in Almaty Foothills, Kazakhstan. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is hot-summer humid continental.

Robust five-storey blocks enclose a broad courtyard, their balconies glazed in against the weather. The end walls are thick masonry with very few openings. Mature poplars stand inside the shared courtyard, and patchy late-winter snow lies on the ground with high snowy mountains behind.

Why have the residents glazed in their own balconies?

Balconies glazed in by the residents themselves are a cold-climate adaptation applied after the fact — an extra thermal buffer and a winter store. Blank end walls face the prevailing cold. Poplars are the standard fast-growing shade tree of continental Central Asia. Five storeys is the classic walk-up limit, which dates the estate as much as the concrete does.

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