Courtyard houses: An overview

In old traditional residences, the courtyard was the focal point of the house. Most, if not all, rooms of the house had a direct connection with the courtyard. Courtyards served privacy purposes where they maximized interior relationships and openness while keeping the outside separate. Not only were courtyards used as social family gathering spaces, they were also a source of air flow and thermal comfort to the residence. Courtyard Houses have been most popular in residential architecture all over the world and in all climatic regions. Courtyard can be square, rectangular, round or amorphous, generated by placement of rooms or buildings around it. In hot arid climates such houses provide a greater measure of comfort. The courtyards supply light and cool air to the rooms around it. Air circulation within this confined space relies largely on the proportions of the surrounding walls and positioning of window openings in the surrounding rooms. Breeze and shading in the courtyard help in creating comfortable living conditions during day and sleeping conditions during night. In this paper various attributes of courtyard houses are discussed. The degree of enclosure, the size and orientation of courtyard in terms of the bioclimatic significance is discussed

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF HOST COMMUNITIE’S SUPPORT FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE HERITAGE DESTINATION OF PURI, INDIA

The study aims to examine the role of socio-demographic characteristics on the host community's perception of tourism impacts in heritage tourism destinations of a developing country. The variables discussed are age, gender, religion, level of education, length of stay in the community, and involvement in the tourism sector. A questionnaire survey method was adopted, and 450 samples were collected from three host communities of Puri, a heritage destination in eastern India. The analysis was carried out using descriptive methods like distribution of the mean, frequency, etc., and statistical techniques like t-test, one-way ANOVA, posthoc test, etc. were used. The findings revealed religiosity as the most significant variable influencing the host community’s perception. The study also found level of education, and length of stay in the community as significantly influential variables. The study's findings will contribute to the literature on tourism impact assessment for heritage destinations in developing countries. It also offers practical implications for policymakers and destination managers in planning tourism development strategies

Effecting Carrying Capacity of Parks in Korba City: Using Cifuentes Method

  In the process of rapid urbanization, the need for green open spaces is increasing, predominantly that of parks. Parks play a vital role in the social, economic, and physical well-being of city dwellers. Park visitors often prefer to visit parks, which have good potential to accommodate the optimal number of visitors without compromising the quality of experience. Due to the lack of understanding of parks and visitors’ requirements, parks are either under-utilised or over-utilized. The optimal visitors carrying capacity is an important parameter to assess the optimal number of visitors an Urban park can accommodate in a given time. This study presents a method to calculate the optimal carrying capacity of visitors. For this purpose, a conventional three-level procedure of visitor carrying capacity for parks was considered in Korba City. In this regard, the physical, real and effective carrying capacity was estimated using “the Cifuentes method”. For this study, three parks from Korba City (C.G., India) were selected that are Silver jubilee park, Smriti nagar park and Vivekanand Udyan. The finding of research indicates that the mentioned three parks were working below the limit of carrying capacity, which means the facilities are underutilised. The outcome signifies may serve as a tool for the future planning of parks as well as other type of ecological environment such as national parks and zoo used for recreational activities. Hence, landscape architects, city planners and policymakers can work in the direction to derive significant information about the parks and park visitors for the optimal utilisation of the par

THERMAL COMFORT IN VERNACULAR COURTYARD HOUSES: CASE STUDY -CHHATTISGARH

The paper firstly introduces vernacular architecture and defines thermal comfort. The second section of this paper gives an account of the way vernacular houses respond to climate and achieve thermal comfort. Vernacular houses of Chhattisgarh, a central state of India are selected for this study to find the evidence that vernacular architecture is likely to be passively comfortable. Courtyards play a vital role in creating thermal comfort along with other social and cultural roles. Vernacular houses are more environment- friendly because they are evolved through a continuous process