Tbilisi Balcony Courtyard

Tbilisi Balcony Courtyard is an original illustration set in Tbilisi Hills, Georgia. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is humid subtropical — hot summers, no dry season.

Long open wooden balconies with delicate carved railings run across two levels of a courtyard, linked by external timber staircases. Pale stucco has worn away at the corners to show brick beneath. A narrow archway leads out to the hillside street.

Why are the stairs and balconies built on the outside?

Putting the circulation outside — balconies and stairs in the open air — only works in a climate with warm summers and winters mild enough that an unheated gallery stays usable. It also makes the courtyard the social centre of the building rather than a light well. Carved timber over masonry, on a steep hillside, is a construction habit of the mountain-ringed valleys of the Caucasus.

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